


José Carioca and How to Deal with Thieving Roosters

by Drifting_Andromeda



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017), The three Caballeros
Genre: A little bit of angst, Established Relationship, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Found Family, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Mentions of homelessness, Platonic Relationships, Romantic Fluff, but again not a whole lot, characters use humor to cope, criminal activity, multi-lingual characters, not much though, some Portuguese and Spanish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:40:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 26,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27609112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drifting_Andromeda/pseuds/Drifting_Andromeda
Summary: Six months after they have began their official relationship José wants to propose to Panchito during their trip to Cuba. Things of course go awry when the engagement ring he bought gets stolen and sold into an underground criminal auction ring. Teaming up with the kid who stole it in the first place he struggles to juggle the kid, keeping Panchito clueless, and somehow dismantling a secret criminal ring.
Relationships: José Carioca/Panchito Pistoles
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first multi-chapter fic! So please be patient with me, apologies for any grammar or spelling mistakes as well. I also have some character speak in Portuguese and Spanish, two languages I am not fluent in. So if there are any errors there please let me know and I'll try to fix them! Anyway, enjoy the first chapter!

Havana was a gorgeous city. At least in José’s humble opinion. 

He had been there before, a few flights stopped in the city when he was a flight attendant. After the fiasco with the drosera occidendum in that tiny town in Brazil, José had requested to take more and more time off, until just quitting entirely.

Launchpad would fly down sometimes and bring him and Panchito back to Duckburg to visit Donald and the rest of his family. It was the most the three caballeros had interacted since their college graduation. After that things got messy and they were all left alone dealing with their own life problems.

They would call sometimes of course, but with Della disappearing and José’s own sister having health issues it was understandable for them to not keep up as often. Donald, of course, had it worse. So because of that, the parrot ended up calling the one and only Panchito Pistoles more than anyone.

He would call Panchito at least once a week whenever Zico and Zeca would cause problems, or their mom (his older sister) ended up in the hospital again. Panchito knew all about his brotherly relationship with Nestor, and even his messy two year long romantic relationship with Rosinha. So to say he was just a tad closer with Panchito rather than Donald was a little bit of an understatement.

He didn’t realize why he adored talking to the rooster until after they crashed Emma Glamour’s party. The whole night while Donald was distracting Daisy, he and Panchito were distracting the security guard, or at least trying to. They had bickered all week that week, but came to an understanding by that night.

After that Launchpad flew them back, but this time José got off with Panchito in Mexico City. He officially met the rest of the Pistoles family and got to see all the places Panchito loved when he was growing up. It made him a little jealous, he never had a great childhood himself. He and his sister spent more time with Nestor than their actual parents. It didn’t help that his sister, Carolita, developed a rare nerve disorder that they never really had the money to deal with. Still don’t actually.

But again, he had been to Mexico City before, but never with Panchito. And somehow seeing the city through the perspective of someone who grew up there made him fall in love with it, and his tour guide.

On the fourth day of their little tour they found themselves outside of the city in Coacalco. They were walking by some river he can’t remember the name of when they got on the topic of romantic endeavors. They both knew of the others attraction to men, hell Donald was attracted to men as well, but both him and José had a stronger taste for women. As they talked José and Panchito were content with talking about past flings and small crushes that didn’t really lead anywhere, they had both heard the others tales before, but bringing up college made Panchito act as if he just got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

“Oh come now, you are hiding something from me, yes?” José nudged his friend in the side and flashed him one of his biggest smiles.

Panchito chuckled, throwing an arm around the parrot’s shoulders, trying to regain the aura of confidence he tries to carry with him no matter what. “Me? Hide things from you? You’re being delusional.” Anyone who knew Panchito for a year or so would believe him, but José has known him for almost two decades.

“Oh vamos lá agora! Tell me! I will never stop bothering you until you do.” As he said it he poked the taller man in the ribs making him recoil and take his arm back from around his shoulders. Years of play fighting and one actual altercation has led José to find all of Panchito’s weak spots, but the downside is the rooster knows his weak spots as well.

Panchito pushed his hat up a little and picked at something on his forehead, “It’s… no big deal, really.”

“If it’s no big deal then why are you so scared of telling me?”

Panchito shot him a look of betrayal and confusion, “Scared?” He repeated with a weak laugh, “I’m not scared.”

“Yes you are.”

“Ridículo! I am Panchito Pistoles! I am never scared!”

“You were scared when that chipmunk broke into Donald’s dorm room our third year of college.”

“Uh.” Panchito’s aura of suaveness and heroic nature slipped away as he stumbled on something, but never fell. “I feel ‘startled’ is a better word for that situation.”

“Mmhmm, sure.” He replied in a teasing tone. Panchito just shot him a glare, but any menace faded with his small smile. For the moment being they dropped the conversation and just enjoyed the river as the sun was setting, but a horrible idea struck José about five minutes later.

“Oh no, you didn’t have a crush on Donald did you?”

Panchito straightened up so fast José swore he heard something click loudly, “What?!”

“I am just asking!”

“No! I did not have a crush on Donald. Well, maybe for like a day, but that faded fast. What I’m talking about is a little bit more, uh. Complicated. To say the least.” He rubbed the back of his neck and looked at a crack in the sidewalk like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

“I guess I don’t get it, I tell you everything. Why can’t you tell me this?”

“Well-”

“Would you tell Donald?”

“Telling Donald would be easier than telling you.” Panchito bit out, but seemed to regret it almost immediately. He looked at José with the most panicked expression he’s ever seen the other wear. “That’s not what I meant.”

José sighed, “I get I’m being pushy, old habits die hard, but it just confuses me. You say it's not a big deal but it clearly is. It also seems to be bothering you, won’t it make you feel better if you just talk about it?”

At this point the two men had come to a complete halt, with José’s back towards the river and Panchito continuously blinking the setting sun out of his eyes, even with his hat pulled down further. 

But the sunlight seemed to brighten the absolutely baffled expression Panchito was sporting. “Do you really not get what I’m saying?” José shook his head, causing the rooster to respond with an exasperated sigh. “I can tell literally anyone else about this, just not you, because I don’t want to ruin things between us.”

“Between us?” José asked.

“Yes! Oh Dios mío, you can’t be this dumb.”

“How am I dumb?”

“Zé! Think about what I am saying.”

“You are saying you had some romantic interest in someone in college that I don’t know about and you can tell literally anyone but me. But I don’t get… Oh, oh.” He leaned back a little and closed his eyes to try and remember every interaction he ever had with Panchito in college. After a moment he opened his eyes again, “Oh meu Deus, I really am dumb.”

“You get it?” Panchito asked softly, even almost a little sadly.

“I think so. You like me?”

The rooster shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets, he looked like he was ready to be met with a punch to the gut or a slap to the face. His eyes even glossed over.

“I don’t see the problem though.” Panchito looked up like José had just claimed the sky was green and the grass was blue. “I mean I do, but it’s easy to fix.”

“How's that?” Asked Panchito hesitantly.

“Well first off, you can know I like you too. Second off is you can agree to go to dinner with me tomorrow night.” He held out his hand, which Panchito just stared at for a minute.

Finally he looked up, seemingly unsure about everything he’s ever seen or done. “Like. Like a date?”

“Yes, like a date.” After another moment Panchito smiled one of his shyer smiles and accepted the hand, then they continued to walk down the river.

That night Panchito ended up storming into the guest room his parents had given José with a brilliant exclamation of, “Holy shit you’re my boyfriend!” Which was really quite poetic to José.

After that they spent four months traveling around central and south America, taking in different sites, regrettably having to tell Donald over the phone and being met with an embarrassingly exasperated “Finally.” All in all the months he spent with Panchito traveling around and just being with him in general were some of the best months of his life. 

They went back to Duckburg once where Donald and Della just teased them for taking so long. “We were waiting for you to come back.” Panchito told Della.

“Yes, we wanted to make sure our biggest fan knew of our relationship as soon as it happened.” José teased, playing along with his boyfriend's little game. He was met with Della’s snort laugh and a punch to the shoulder that actually kind of hurt. 

He admired Della in a weird ‘I wish we were siblings’ kind of way. He loved his older sister Carolita of course, and he loved his twin nephews like they were his own. But Della always brought a certain energy to every room she walked in. She was different when she came back, but a decade alone on the moon will do that to anyone. Either way she kept up her energy, even when he could tell that she was just mentally exhausted with everything around her. 

Della and Carolita were similar, they both deal with physical and mental trauma, but still adore their families to no end. Maybe that’s why he and Donald get along so well. They both loved their sisters no matter what. But the idea of Carolita and Della in the same room was enough to give him nightmares. Same goes for Zico and Zeca hanging out with Huey Dewey and Louie. 

After their visit to Duckburg they went to Rio where it was Panchito’s turn to meet the Carioca family. José’s parents were never super involved in his life, but his aunts and uncles and cousins definitely were. Carolita was currently in a wheelchair after a tweak out with her legs, but she was more than happy to meet Panchito.

They had spoken on the phone before but never face timed or anything, so this was the first time they saw each other in person. It wasn’t until after they met did José realize he’d never shown a picture of either of them to each other, which was bizarre considering how many photos he has of each of them on his phone. 

But the two people who 100% dominated his phone were the most skeptical about Panchito. Zico and Zeca are friends with Rosinha’s niece Gabi and were the most heartbroken when the two split. Of course they were only four or five and didn’t understand how relationships really worked. Not to mention José had never really told his nephews about his sexuality until he called them to tell then he was now dating a man.

They had spent all week up to their visit warning him that they were not going to like this man. That he could never really be their uncle. They were much nicer about it, but that's the basis of their conversation. He didn’t take any offense to it either, he was their legal guardian for four years when Carolita was in the hospital recovering after a really bad seizure that led to her falling down some stairs and cracking her head open. That had to be the scariest day of any of their lives. 

But to Zico and Zeca he was the closest thing they were going to get to a father. Their real dad died when they were just babies, way before they could form any memories of him. So to see your father figure pay attention to another person so much, José didn’t blame them for being a little defensive. He knew Panchito would win them over eventually.

He was right of course, within mere minutes of the first hand shake, that left both the twins kind of shaking in their spots, all three of them were laughing over the stupid stuff José had done in the past. It was very hard not to like Panchito. He was too energetic and caring, he could cheer up anyone, even if it was only for a short period of time. 

They spent a month and a half in Rio. Switching between Carolita’s house and Nestor’s house. Panchito and Nestor had met when Nestor flew to visit José in college at the beginning of his second year there. So José wasn’t worried about those two.

He was worried about Rosinha. He wasn’t sure if he should introduce the two at first, he and Rosinha ended things pretty messily, much to her fathers delight. He didn’t have to mull it over long though, as the second week they were there the couple ran into Rosinha at a beach. José was pleasantly surprised when the two of them actually got along. Starting with Panchito complimenting her blue bikini and then them just spiraling into a conversation about fashion. A topic José himself was quite knowledgeable in, but was a little stunned by how well the two clashing personalities were getting along. Halfway through Panchito even referred to José as his boyfriend, which Rosinha obviously heard but brushed off with unnatural grace for her. 

After that she started hanging around more and José even apologized for how shitty of a boyfriend he was to her at times. Once their time was up in Brazil he left knowing he was now on good terms with his ex, and that his family loved his new partner. 

José had booked a cheap-ish cruise for them to take in the carribean, with the ending location being Cuba for them. The same day they landed marked the six month anniversary of when he and Panchito started dating, which he did not plan but claimed he did anyway. 

They would spend a month in Cuba, Havana specifically, and then visit Duckburg one more time before going back to Mexico City to really settle down and look for somewhere more permanent to stay. Of course they were getting low on funds, so they’d stay with the Pistoles family again until they at least had a decent apartment if not a small house. 

Panchito squinted at the traveling fees, “I don’t get why we’re struggling so much.” He said scanning through the multiple envelopes. “We used our life savings and combined them, that was a good what? Sixty thousand? Seventy thousand dollars? Not to mention this is really the first time since we started dating where we’re staying at a hotel instead of with friends or family.”

“Maybe we didn’t add the food totals up correctly.”

“Eh, we did eat out a lot in Brazil. No offense but Carolita isn’t the best cook.”

José snorted, “Trust me, I know.”

“Could it have been that store we went to in Puerto Rico? The one with the studded belts and the five hundred thousand dollar fur pumps? We got something from there didn’t we?” He looked through their little stack of receipts, but struggled to find the ones they spent in Puerto Rico.

José knew he wouldn’t find them, he made sure he took the receipts they got in P.R. as to not ruin the surprise. 

So what if six months was too short of a time? Hey had known each other for almost twenty years, and Panchito had been waiting for almost as long. José knew the minutes their beaks met, the first time they shared a bed, the first time José felt comfortable enough to cry in front of him. He knew the minute Panchito preened the back of his head or spent five hours trying to get a stubborn wine stain out of his nice tweed jacket.

He also knew when they went dancing together or how he helped Panchito gain actual confidence, not just put on a facade. Or told him how much he meant to him, or how talented he was and whatnot. They made each other better.

So yes six months is too short a time frame if you had only known each other for six months, but sixth months is a perfect time to ask when you’ve been really in love with someone for years. So no matter what.

José was going to propose.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to repeat the first chapters notes, there are instances where characters speak Spanish and Portuguese. Two languages I am not fluent in (I'm learning!) so if there are any mistakes I would be very thankful if you told me! With that in mind, enjoy chapter two!

Havana, as mentioned before, was a beautiful city. The architecture and the live music was a sight that was all too familiar to the parrot. It reminded him of the part of Rio he grew up in. Where people would occasionally come together and just celebrate being alive with colorful clothes and lively music. 

It was in the middle of July, so it was close to or over one hundred degrees in the city that day. José was wearing a white t-shirt and loose ripped jeans, Panchito had ditched his usual attire as well, sporting a jersey for football (or soccer) player Jacinto Figurão, who was a Brazillian player but he didn’t seem to mind. He was also in white shorts that went surprisingly well with his plumage. His hat was stored safely in their hotel room.

They were walking down a road in old Havana on their way to museo de la ciudad. Which literally just translates to museum of the city. José had been patting his pocket so much that day, making sure the box was still snug in his pocket, he was surprised that Panchito hadn’t said anything. 

Suddenly the rooster stopped him by tugging on his wrist. “Look!” He said pointing to a clump of buildings that looked suffocatingly busy. 

“Que?” He stood next to his boyfriend and looked in the direction he was pointing. Near the center of the small shopping plaza was a bright orange and green building with a dirty hand painted sign that said ‘Tienda de música de Carlos’.

Panchito beamed at him, looking like a child in a toy store. “We have to go!” He didn’t even wait for José to agree, he just started dragging him into the crowd towards the music shop.

People everywhere were speaking in rapid fire Spanish, snippets of conversations caught his attention, friends cheating on spouses, a nephew shoplifting something, a grandmother who locked herself in her car for three days and somehow survived. It was strange listening to other conversations, it really makes you realize that everyone is the main character in their own way. Right in this moment he and Panchito were just eccentric strangers to all these people. Any one of them could be interesting enough to try and spark a friendship of some sort, he never had a problem with socializing with new people, but some people had a problem with being talked to to a stranger. But that really only happened in America.

In that moment, as he was briefly debating his place in the world and not paying attention, he ran into someone. The sudden collison made Panchito lose his grip on José’s wrist, “Oof.” Whoever ran into him had stepped painfully on his left foot.

The stranger stumbled back and allowed José to get a good look at them. It was a kid, maybe Zico and Zeca’s age, maybe a little older. He was a rooster with brown feathers, a straw hat that looked like it had been through three hurricanes, and a striped blue and white long sleeve. He tipped his hat with a small smile, “Disculpas señor.” He apologized before skating around him and continuing his life.

Panchito grabbed his hand this time, “That kid came out of nowhere.”

“Yeah. He did.” He watched the kid until he disappeared into the crowd. Then followed Panchito into the music store. 

“¡Buenos días!” A nice elderly woman who worked there called as the couple walked into the nice air conditioned store.

“¡Buenos días!” They echoed back to her, already making their way towards the old record section. There were the usual suspects of course, Selena, Elvis Crespo, Marc Anthony, Roberto Carlos, the usuals. There was some modern pop as well, but José didn’t even give it a second glance. There was too much auto tune in modern music for his taste, but he knew Panchito liked cheesy pop music so he didn’t talk about his dislike that much.

Just watching his boyfriend browse the different selections of records made his heart flutter, he patted his pocket again. This time he didn’t feel the box. He patted his other pocket and didn’t feel anything besides his phone and wallet. “I’ll be back, I’m going to the bathroom.” He said to Panchito as calmly as he could.

“Hmm? Ok, I’ll take out the records I’d think you’d like.”

José forced a smile, “Obrigado.” He said before speed walking to the back of the store where the bathrooms were located. He stepped in calmly and waited for a nice older gentleman to finish washing his hands. Once he left the parrot checked if anyone else was in the bathroom, counted to twenty and-

“I lost the fucking ring! That cost me over three thousand dollars! I spent hours picking it out! Nem fondeno! Eu sou um idiota!” He slammed the counter once with open palms and took a few deep breaths. “It’s ok, I had it before we. Walked. In…” He patted his pockets again, his wallet and phone were intact, they were in his right front pocket. The ring was in his left front pocket. Which was the same side the kid ran into him.

“Droga.” He said with a sigh, rubbing his hand through his hair. “I’m never seeing that thing again.”

He eventually left the bathroom with fake positive energy. He had gone through much worse situations, and even though this was the most upset he had been in years he was able to keep the charade up so Panchito didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. 

They visited the museo de la ciudad as planned, and they stopped to eat lunch at a small restaurant with beautiful outdoor seating and impeccable ropa vieja that almost made him cheer up, if he didn’t get the check and remembered that three thousand dollars had gone down the drain because of an eleven year old. 

Panchito placed his hand on top of José’s and smiled sweetly with a hint of concern. “Are you ok?”

José blinked and smiled, lacing his fingers through his boyfriend's hand and giving it a little squeeze, “A little overheated, but I’m fine.”

Panchitos smile relaxed, “Maybe we could get some ice cream?”

“I can never say no to ice cream.” He could also never say no to his boyfriend. Well he could if he really didn’t want to do something, but simple things like a new shirt or some sweets. Stuff like that is hard to say no to. Luckily Panchito has an equally hard time saying no to José over stupid stuff as well. Theres a whole suitcase dedicated to dumb sovenoirs they’ve collected over their extensive travels. Most of which were encouraged by José and his stupid impulses.

If they ever got a house it was going to be a mess of different styles and silly little souvenirs. The idea of settling down and living with Panchito made him both incredibly happy and annoyed. Annoyed that he can’t take the first step today because of a kleptomaniac kid, but happy knowing it’ll happen either way. Eventually. 

Still that's a lot of money that he just lost because some kid wanted an easy score. He kept his eyes open all day, hoping to at least glance at the kid. What he’d do after that he wasn’t sure. Luckily, or unluckily, he never saw the kid that day. By the time they got back to the hotel it was dark and his hopes were lower than low. 

He couldn’t really sleep that night, Panchito basically got knocked out. José heard his soft snoring only moments after his head hit the pillow. While his boyfriend slept he made a few runs to the laundry room and did a quick load or two before going back up and texted both his sister and his nephews. Neither conversation lasted long, as it may only be eleven pm in Cuba but it was one am in Brazil.

José couldn’t remember how many times jet lag has kicked him in the tailfeathers. Especially as a flight attendant. There was one day where he was scheduled for plane after plane after plane, the sun was in the sky for him for twenty hours straight. It was kind of beautiful and kind of terrifying. Imagine the sun just staying up in the sky constantly, for someone like José who actually prefers night time, it sounds like a nightmare.

Another nightmare is losing a three thousand dollar engagement to a brat. He never told anyone, not even his own family, that he was going to propose to Panchito here. He knew they wouldn’t try to talk him out of it, that wasn’t what he was worried about. Donald, even though he raised three boys, is a bit of a blabber mouth and is terrible at keeping secrets. He would call Panchito right after and be so painfully obvious it would be hard not to get the hint.

So anyway, if he called people and told them he lost the ring to a punk kid then they would all pity him. He hated receiving pity, he didn’t need any of it. He was fine on his own, sure he’s been through a lot, but everyone has. He just got hit harder at a younger age. Him and Carolita both. She may be the only one who would laugh at him now that he thought about it. 

There were a few months every year where they weren’t with Nestor or one of their cousins where the Carioca siblings would just wander around the streets of Rio and scam people out of money. Sometimes they would steal wallets or jewelry too, but then her disease got worse and worse and they gradually just stopped stealing things. José has kept the ability to scam people easily, sometimes he doesn’t even realize he’s doing it. He’s also a great pick pocket, he has very quick, nimble fingers that can fit in pretty much any pocket or opening of a purse. 

He hasn’t seriously pickpocketed anyone in over a decade, he does it as a party trick here and there, or to annoy Donald and Panchito whenever he gets bored. 

Which is why he’s so mad that he let himself get pickpocketed. He was that kid at one point… Maybe that could help.

He was the kid, and what did he do with treasures after he stole them? He either hid it in an old metal box on top of a roof near a construction zone, or he sold it off to a pawn shop or somewhere else as quickly as he possibly could. 

That kid looked scruffy and a little dirty, so either his home wasn’t great or he was homeless. So he most likely had a secret spot in a place no one would think to look, or a usual place he sells stuff. José sold stuff to the same pawn shop for well over three years or so, the man confronted him once about all the random stuff he was collecting and selling. Luckily Carolita was with him and said their grandparents had passed months apart from each other and they had to sell their stuff to stay in their house. Which was far from the truth, but the man bought it. 

The day their grandmother passes is the day the Devil wins. That woman has been involved in so many things that should have killed her, yet she’s still walking around, smoking her cigars (a habit she passed to José for a few years) and refusing to kick the bucket. 

Ok, focus. The kid. The ring. He was very relaxed when he did it, and very quick, so he had to be a natural at pickpocketing as well. Or he’s just done that routine a lot. Either way he was still sloppy. He may have overshot the reach and ended up stepping on José’s left foot, the same side of the pocket he was going for. How he hid it so fast from the naked eye he had no clue. Maybe when he was tipping his hat? That was another thing, he was dressed much too colorfully, he should be wearing neutral colors so that people would just glance over him. Not dress like the flag of Cuba. 

Bad things for a wannabe criminal, good things for when someone wants to catch said wannabe criminal.

Instead of really sleeping that night he went over a map of Cuba he got at an old newspaper stand and marked possible places for a young pickpocket to stash his finds. He did eventually go to bed, but only like two or three hours. 

“Oh Dios.” Panchito said in the morning, cupping José’s face and studying him. “You look like a zombie.”

José snorted, “Obrigado meu amor.”

“You know what I mean, how much sleep did you get?”

“Uhhh.” He tilted his head back towards the ceiling, but took too long and ended up just falling back on the bed. 

“That’s enough of an answer for me.” Panchito teased. He got out of bed and José just listened to him move around the room for a few minutes before opening his eyes and seeing the rooster all dressed and groomed hovering above him.

“Hello.”

“Hello. I’m going to go get breakfast.” Panchito leaned down and kissed the top of José’s beak. “Do you want to eat anything?”

“Not right now, eating after waking up makes me nauseous.” 

“Right. Just rest, I’ll be back later.”

“Ok.” He didn’t close his eyes again until he heard the door click behind his boyfriend. He managed to sleep somewhat peacefully for three more hours until dragging himself out of bed to finally eat something.

He met Panchito in the lobby and they were both met with the poor weather outside. “Guess it’s a rainy day in.” Panchito muttered. The rooster hated rain, José knew that. Rain meant no one was having a lot of fun outside, unless you were carefree and didn’t care about your clothes getting soaked. 

As they watched the rain hit the big windows in the lobby José got a brilliant idea. 

“Hey, how about you try to get a massage at the spa here, and I go out and get you a gift.”

“A gift?” His boyfriend echoed.

“Yeah, a gift. Consider it a belated six month anniversary gift.”

“Aw, you don’t have to do that. You already got me a gift.” He did give him a gift, he gave him a hand made guitar pick he managed to make in secret in Brazil. It was small but it meant a lot to Panchito and that's all that really mattered to José.

“True, but it was so small. And I know rain makes you glum. It’s the least I can do to try and cheer you up.”

Panchitos answer was given in the form of a kiss to the cheek. “What did I do to deserve you?”

“You deserve it querido.” They both went back to the hotel room to gather the things they needed and then went their separate ways. José took his trusty black umbrella and didn’t open it until he was well outside. His head and shoulders got a little wet, but nothing he couldn’t handle.

Standing on the sidewalk and listening to the patter of rain hitting off his umbrella was strangely peaceful. If he could, he would just stand there all day. But he had to do something.

He sighed, “Alright.” He started walking towards the direction of old Havana. “Alright pequeno ladrão. Where are you?”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello and welcome back! Just a warning, there is mention of death in this chapter. It's not super obvious and it is covered as a joke, so just be aware. Also, there is an action scene, I am not good at action scenes. So if it is wonky, just know I tried my best lol. Again, there are characters who speak in Spanish and Portuguese, two languages I am not fluent in. So if there are any mistakes please let me know and I'll fix them! Now Enjoy!

The rain had only gotten worse as the day carried on. People were still out and about, dressed in layers upon layers of plastic like clothing to repel the rain, newspapers and briefcases and anything else bigger than a head were turned into makeshift umbrellas. 

Lots of people were rushing, running from one store to another making sure they didn’t slip. People looked either annoyed or thrilled, no inbetween. José was taking his time, making sure to keep an eye out for any brightly colored thieves. 

Rain was a common occurrence in his life at this point, it rained a lot in his neighborhood as a kid, it rained a lot on the flights he was attending. It was scary at first, going through a storm in a giant metal plane, but after a few times you get used to the turbulence and it becomes easier to calm people down.

For some reason he was always really good at calming people down. Even when he was a bastard of a kid. He always made sure the nice people around him were under decent roofs and got good food everyday. It was strange when he grew up and people started doing the same for him, Donald making sure he ate in college, Zico and zeca bothering him about making dinner for himself as well, Panchito to always be there shoving food in his direction softly but sternly. He never had a problem with eating, he loved his body and always thought he was healthy. It’s just, he simply forgot to eat sometimes.

Maybe that's what that kid needed. Just someone to be around him softly but sternly shoving food and care in his direction. José knows more than anyone that it's hard to accept care from others after so long going without it. That’s why he was uneasy about Donald and Panchito in college. They were so nice to him, inviting him places, paying for his food when they ate out. He immediately thought they were up to something. Of course, they weren’t, they were just being the nice guys they were.

Yeah Donald lost his parents at a young age, and Panchito was a lonely only child growing up, but out of the three of them José had it the hardest. Not that it’s a competition of course. They’ve all dealt with trials and difficulty in life, sometimes the others had it harder than he did, sometimes he had it harder than them. But with the whole story of the parrot being forced to steal to keep himself and his sister alive sounded like a plot of some musical tragedy. 

So of course he’d be defensive, of course he’d be uneasy, but what surprised him was how understanding the other caballeros were when he explained his story (in very little detail). They didn’t care what he did in the past, just what he did in the present and how dedicated he was to being a better person. Just hearing that almost made him breakdown and cry, but he passed it off as a joke. Maybe Panchito and Donald don’t really know how much they mean to him.

A loud, splashing, crash from a nearby alley made him jump. There was no one else around, well that he could see anyway, there could be someone in the alley that he couldn’t see.

He counted to thirty and then edged his way around the corner. Peaking over he quickly saw a yellow rooster foot climb over a very tall wall. There was a knocked over trash can and a broken wooden box that looked like it carried potatoes at some point.

This was much deeper into old Havana, now the impressive architecture that had been so well kempt, it was now slowly starting to decay. Vines were slowly inching up the wall, and the roofs no longer had evidence of construction to maintain the structure. There were some holes visible in the roofs of buildings, but some had blankets of tin or cardboard boxes covering them to try and prevent leakage. This part of the city was much more vacant, maybe it was the rain, but the streets seemed abandoned.

It was the perfect place for someone to hide stolen goodies. 

The kid went over a wall towards the west, so José went down the first alley that let him cross to the other side of the buildings. It felt like crossing a threshold of some sort, the rain hitting garbage bags and metal cans sounded like it was leading up to a strange musical number in a movie.

Only a sliver of people remained on these streets. Mostly people taking shortcuts to get to their destination quicker. Or homeless people trying to ask for money, or finding a better spot for shelter. 

Thunder drummed off in the distance, seemingly causing the rain to come down harder than before. The rain poured off his umbrella like a waterfall now, not to mention his feet and the bottom of his jeans were quickly becoming more and more soaked.

Just as he was about to call it a day he turned to go back the way he came and caught sight of something shiny. There were construction platforms against a building that didn’t look that bad compared to the others. Obviously the city agreed since they were trying to fix it, but some signs around the building read that the construction was being put on pause for a month or so for some legal reason.

At the base of a ladder leading up to the first platform, buried under some lumps of grass and mud, was a silver dollar coin. An American silver dollar with the statue of Liberty’s face on it. José put it in his pocket and tried to climb the ladder while still holding his umbrella. It wasn’t easy but he didn’t really get any wetter. The platforms were covered with tarps, so once under he closed his umbrella and shook off the water the best he could. 

There were some toolboxes left behind, as well as screws and nails and paintbrushes scattered around the platform he was currently on. It looked as if the construction was paused in the middle of painting the outside wall, half of it being a new gray coat and the other half being a gross looking brown. 

There was a window higher up, it could easily be accessed by standing on a toolbox. Because the rain was so loud he couldn’t rely on hearing for footsteps or listening to breathing, just in case someone homeless had claimed this spot as their own for the time being. So he’d just have to go for it and pray nothing bad happened. 

Dragging the toolbox over and standing it, while trying not to break it, was harder than he expected. It was at least thirty pounds, being filled to the brim with random tools that shouldn’t have been left here in the first place. It was also very unstable, standing on it felt like standing on those balance boards they had at the fitness gym in college. The window was also stuck, which didn’t help. 

After a minute or two of just pushing it like a normal person, he was getting a little irritated. “Come on, you stupid window!” Finally he shoved with all his might and was met with a satisfying pop, but the force of it made the toolbox tip and he fell on his ass back on the platform. The toolbox popped open as well and all sorts of tools spilled out.

“Well that wasn’t loud.” He muttered sarcastically. But as if the universe was listening and saying, ‘You think that was loud? Watch this!’ As José stood up and brushed the wood shavings off of himself the hinges of the window creaked and groaned and gave out, sending the window pane sailing to the floor. Where it shattered instantly. 

The noise made him cringe and he held his breath. He counted to thirty again, when no one shouted who was there or what happened the parrot breathed again. “Droga.”

Repeating the process he dragged the lighter toolbox back against the wall and climbed through the window. “This was so much easier to do when I was seven.” His limbs were too long and awkward, and he definitely didn’t bend the way he used to. But after an embarrassingly amount of time he wiggled his way through the opening, he landed on his feet, but the glass shards stabbed at him with unbridled rage. The drop made his ankles hurt and the glass made the souls of his feet ache more than they should have. 

The building, what looked to be an old hair salon, was dark and thick with dust. Cobwebs littered every corner of the room José was standing in, mirrors were missing pieces and graffiti was covered almost every surface. An old salon chair looked like it was rotting, a spring was even poking out of the backrest. Not to mention the rain hitting the roof gave the whole scene an even creepier ambiance. 

There was a staircase through a doorway with no door that just seemed to go up forever and ever. Every room that it led to was blocked off or locked, pretty much impossible for him or anyone else who didn’t have the necessary equipment to get in. Unless they somehow climbed in through a higher up window. 

Finally there was a room that looked surprisingly decent. There weren't any cobwebs or that much dust, and there was even an old, soggy carpet on the ground. It was located on the highest floor, whichever that was, José didn’t count. There was a plank of wood connected out of the window to the decrepit building to the left. If nothing else, that was a give away that someone was using this room for something.

Scratch that, what really gave it away was some stolen tarps from the construction sight covering something small in the back corner. José walked over and used the handle of his umbrella to tear it off of whatever it was hiding. 

“Oh abençoe meu coração.” There was a small treasure chest that looked older than José himself. It was open and showing off jewelry, old leather wallets, a book or two, and even a pair of old dancing shoes.

“Pin Pon dame la mano, con un fuerte apretón, pues quiero ser tu amigo. Pin Pon Pin Pon Pin Pon PIN-PON!” The sudden singing caught him off guard. It was coming towards the building next door, the one connected by the wooden plank. Whoever was singing was singing loud, since they even drained out the downpour. 

José ran as fast as he could to the doorway and pressed his back against the wall. The singing got closer until it was echoing off the wall. Wet footsteps also echoed off the hollow room, but both halted to a stop. He didn’t cover the chest back up.

“Huh.” The person dropped something on the ground and then started fiddling with the tarps. José felt safe enough to peak out, and the person who just entered did indeed have his back to him.

It was the same kid, same straw hat, same blue and white shirt, he even had a red bandana tied around his neck. He had a blue sack that looked like it used to be a pillowcase next to him, half full of something. Maybe the ring was in there.

Once the kid started counting José crept out of his hiding spot, trying to avoid the weaker floorboards. After a moment he was right behind him.

“Well nothings missing, so that's lucky.” The kid said shoving jewelry back into the chest. 

“Yes, lucky.” The kid shot up and threw multiple pieces of jewelry up in the air like he was jumping out for a surprise party.

“Ah!” It took the kid a second to realize what was going on. “You? But how’d, why-what?”

“You took my ring.” The kid blinked. “The ring that was in my left pocket in front of the music shop in old Havana, you stepped on my left foot. It was a quick job, but you were a little sloppy.”

“Caramba. You tracked me down just so you could get a ring back?” José nodded, the kid rolled his eyes. “If you want it that bad it's in the sack.” He pointed to the blue sack that was on the floor right next to them. 

José crouched down and reached out to grab it, but a floorboard creaked and he looked over in time to see the kid jump onto the plank outside the window. “Hey!” José called, not even hesitating to follow. 

The wood plank was slick, but it wasn’t super hard to follow him. The loss of traction for both of them helped slow the kid down, but José had been running away from people his whole life, so he was much better with it. There was a bridge of wooden planks connecting at least twelve buildings, but José caught up at the fifth building. The kid obviously didn’t notice him as he shrieked when the parrot caught his collar and pulled him back, causing both of them to slip and fall on their asses on top of an old building.

“Jesuscristo, how’d you catch me?” The kid cried in disbelief. 

“You can’t ditch a pickpocket. You of all people should know that.” José dragged him to his feet and started marching him back toward his little hideout, not caring anymore how soaked he got from the rain that was still coming down in buckets. “Now tell me the truth, my ring isn’t in there is it?”

“I don’t have to tell you anything, anciano.” They crossed the first plank, that José just noticed was secured with different nails and screws.

“Yeah, you do. Unless you want me to press charges.”

The kid scoffed, “What charges? I didn’t do anything.” They crossed the second plank.

“There is a chest of stolen goods that beg to differ.” They crossed the third plank.

“Oh come on, you just said you were a pickpocket too, can’t you help a fellow pickpocket out?” 

“I used to be a pickpocket, not anymore. I’ve seen first hand how hard it is for people to lose special things like jewelry and such.” They crossed the fourth plank.

“Those are just things, people shouldn’t care about things that much.” They crossed the fifth plank back into the building with the treasure chest and his umbrella. He let go of the kid only for him to try and bolt again. This time he grabbed his shoulders. 

“Well they do. I am attached to that ring. So give it.”

“I stole it fair and square.”

“That gives you no authority. Speaking of authorities, I will not get them involved if you give me the ring back. I’m sure your parents wouldn’t be pleased if the police come knocking on their door.” The kid shot him a glare that actually kind of scared him.

“My mom would understand.” The kid huffed, crossing his arms. 

“Would she now?”

“Yes. She’d get it.”

“Have you told her you're doing this?”

“No, you can if you want to. She’s the first one in the twelfth row on the left in the Cristóbal Colón cemetery.” An awkward pause filled the air.

“Oh.”

“Yeah.” The kid managed to laugh, but his eyes gave away that he was hurt. “You’d need an ouija board to tell her.”

“Look, I’m sorry. I really am. But I really need that ring. I was going to propose.”

“Gross.”

José sputtered before taking a breath, “Look, neither of us want to be talking to the other right now. So give me the ring and we can both carry on with our own lives.”

“I would love to get you out of my hair but I can’t give you the ring.”

“And why not?”

“I already sold it.” 

“You what!” He sputtered more violently this time and took a lot longer to form words again. “You sold my ring! That was over three thousand dollars!”

The kid, who was previously unaffected, looked like he was just slapped. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped. “What?! I was scammed!” The kid threw his hat down, showing off his damp red hair. “I only got nine hundred bucks off of that, the guy said it was worthless!”

“You sold it for nine hundred dollars! To who?”

“Some badger lady named Ximena El Tejón.”

“Ximena El Tejón! She’s wanted by every country in the Caribbean and America and Canada!"

“Yeah I know, I wouldn’t have sold it to her if I knew she was going to scam me.” José sputtered again, throwing his face in his hands and leaning over. He counted to fifteen and stood up straight again.

“Alright. You are going to help me get that ring back.”

“Ha! Yeah, right.”

“Or,” José continued, “I will come back here next time you're gone, and take everything in that chest for myself. And I promise you, you will not find me as easily as I found you.” The kid's smugness drained from his expression as he glanced at the chest.

“Everything?”

“Everything. Chest included. But if you help me get my ring back, I won’t tell anyone about it.”

The kid thought for a second, before groaning like Zeca did when he didn’t want to go to football (soccer) practice. “Ugh, fine. I’ll help you get back your stupid ring abriano.”

“Great, and please, call me José.”

The kid rolled his eyes. “People call me Miguelito Maracas, but I prefer Miggy.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sure you're sick me repeating myself every chapter, so I'll make it short, if any of the Spanish or Portuguese I used in this chapter are wrong, please let me know and I'll fix it!

By five pm that day the rain had completely stopped, but José was still soaked. 

He had dragged Miggy back to the regular area of old Havana where people were slowly starting to crawl back into the streets to try and enjoy the last few hours of sunlight. Miggy was also trying to enjoy the last few hours of broad day light pick pocketing.

“Will you stop?” José growled under his breath, swatting the young roosters wrist for the fifth time that hour.

“I’m not sorry.” Miggy shot back, trying to get ahead to try and swipe a businessman's watch. 

José grabbed his bandana and pulled him back as gently as possible. “You’re gonna get me arrested.”

“I wish.” Miggy mumbled. 

José sighed. He thought he could handle one kleptomaniac kid for a few hours. He had raised Zico and Zeca for four years while Carolita recovered. The twins were five when they went under his care, and five year olds who don’t understand that their mother isn’t doing great, get cranky and jealous incredibly easily. Which led to a lot of crying and whining. He couldn’t count how many brawls the boys had gotten into over something simple like a baseball cap or a toy. There were times when they even ‘ran away’ for a period of time before coming back and complaining that they were hungry before dark.

All kids were different, he knew that. Zico loved music and had a more chill and an alternative fashion style. Zeca was more of an athlete with social skills he obviously picked up from José himself. Not to mention how distinct Huey, Dewey, and Louie grew up to be like in a home with only one paternal figure for a decade. 

The difference was that those kids had at least one person that looked out for them, Miggy didn’t seem to have that. 

It was still cloudy out, but sometimes the clouds would part and rays of light would shine down somewhere on the street. This time, when the clouds parted, the light was pointed in the direction of an ice cream shop. “Ok. I’ll strike you a deal. If you don’t pick pocket anyone from here on out, I’ll buy you whatever you want from that ice cream shop.”

Miggy looked at José and then looked at the ice cream shop, looking like they were both aliens from another planet. “You’re kidding.”

“Cross my heart.”

After a moment of just standing there Miggy sighed, “Fine, just never say ‘cross my heart’ again.”

“Promise.” Miggy walked into the shop and immediately shoved his hands in the pockets of his blue shorts. They were both still soggy from the downpour and they squeaked with every step on the floor. 

The shop wasn’t incredibly busy, a few families with loud kids and a few teenagers who looked as if they were on a double date. José and Miggy stayed back as they scanned the menu. After a moment Miggy nudged him lightly.

“Do you know what you want abriano?” José scowled at the new nickname the kid had bestowed upon him without his permission. ‘Abriano’ literally meant ‘old man’ in Spanish. 

“I am thirty eight.”

“That's old.”

“No it’s not!”

“You’re a whole quarter of a century older than me.” José took a brief pause to do the math, maybe skipping school was a bad idea. 

“You’re thirteen?”

“Almost fourteen.” He was a little over a year older than Zico and Zeca.

“And, if you don’t mind me asking, how long have you been doing this?”

“Annoying you? About two hours.” He stepped up to the counter and put on his biggest smile, not even waiting for José to follow him. 

“¡Hola y bienvenido a palacio de helados de Margarie! ¿Qué puedo conseguirte?” 

“Hola, puedo tener un extra grande masa de galleta con chispas de chocolate en un cono de galleta por favor?”

José stepped up to the counter as well, “You want an extra large?” He whispered.

“Si.”

The parrot rolled his eyes, “Tomaré un pequeño helado de pistacho en una taza por favor.”

The cashier pressed a few buttons and then the small screen flashed five sixty five. “¡Cinco dólares sesenta y cinco centavos es tu total!” She turned and passed their order to a college aged hummingbird who went straight to work.

After passing the payment and getting his thirty five cents back he followed Miggy to the other counter where José’s order was already sitting. Miggy stuck his tongue out, “Pistachio.” He said the word pistachio like how José says ‘Rocha Vaz’ or ‘Zé Galo’ which was somewhat amusing.

“What, don’t like pistachio?”

“It’s the bane of my existence.” Miggy said simply crossing his arms across his chest. He quickly unfolded them as his giant ice cream order was placed on the counter. “Ooh.” He scooped it up and grabbed a plastic spoon and dug right in, eating it like it was the last thing he was ever going to eat.

“Caramba, relaxa.” José placed a hand on the boy's shoulder and guided him towards the door. “You’ll get a brain freeze.”

Miggy swallowed about a softball sized clump of ice cream and looked at the parrot. Him being a teenage rooster made him tall, around the same height as José if not a few centimeters shorter or so. He was taller than Zico and Zeca, that was for sure. 

“That was Portuguese.” He geniusly pointed out.

“Oh, voces sabe Portugues?”

“Um pouco.” He said before shoveling more ice cream into his mouth.

“If you got a spoon, why not just put it in a cup?”

“Soggy waffle cones taste better.”

José scoffed, “Alright, if you insist.” They walked down the street some more until hitting a stone bench that was dedicated to some dead rich guy in the area. Miggy was just finishing a few bites of the cone, meanwhile José wasn’t even halfway done with his.

“You ate that fast, didn’t you get a brain freeze?”

“Oh totally, it’s killing me.” He pressed a hand to his forehead. “But I was starving.”

Then it dawned on José that this was a kid. A kid whose mom had died and a father with nothing to speak of (that he knew) and hid things in abandoned buildings under construction. He swallowed his own ice cream, “When. When was the last time you ate?”

Miggy got scarily still, his hand still on his forehead, also blocking his expression. After a quiet, dangerous moment the boy scoffed and sat up straight. “Does it matter?”

“Of course it matters.”

“Whatever. You just want the ring.” He mumbled the last part, so it took José a minute to understand what he said. Before he could respond Miggy continued. “I sold the ring at a popular swap sight, it’s a cover store.”

“Cover store?” José repeated. 

“You know, stores that are advertised as one thing but are really used for another.”

“Oh, right. Which store.”

“It’s near hotel Inglaterra.” José nearly choked on his ice cream, instead he had a coughing fit.

“That’s where I’m staying.” He choked out

“Well if you were such a great pickpocket, you would have noticed the little surfing store down the street is a little sketchy.” Panchito had pointed out the store in the cab on their way to the hotel. The sign had a surfing pair of sunglasses, also wearing sunglasses. It was too ridiculous not to point out. 

“That place is where Ximena El Tejón is hiding out?”

Miggy shook his head, “It’s where her lackee’s are stationed, I told you I sold it to a guy. He was the one buying it for Ximena El Tejón’s sake.”

“The way you talk about this, have you done this before?”

Miggy made a so-so motion with his hand, “Not really. I can take you into the store tomorrow if you want.”

“Tomorrow?” 

“Yeah, I’ve kept you from your weird girlfriend for hours. And I’ve got to make the final tally on my loot.” He stood up and brushed his blue shorts off and stretched. He hesitated to see if he should correct the kid about his boyfriend, but decided not to.

José stood up as well, his ice cream still only half eaten. “And if you don’t pull through?”

Miggy shrugged, “You know where my stuff is, and I can’t move all my stuff overnight.” Without thinking José shoved his ice cream in the boys hands. Miggy seemed like he was just given a giant cockroach by the way he reacted.

“Eat the rest of that.” José instructed. 

“I don’t like-”

“Pistachios, I know. Suck it up and eat it, you’re basically skin and bones pirralho.” Miggy seemed offended to be called a brat in Portuguese but didn’t question it as he took his own spoon and dipped into the ice cream. 

José left first, making sure the kid didn’t feel obligated to stay. He didn’t owe José anything. Sure he bought the kid some food, but that was just common decency. He trusted Miggy to pull through tomorrow. Unless he was a really good liar, he had a point. He had a lot of stolen goodies, and that chest must have been pretty heavy. José could definitely find him again as well. He may not act like it but he had a great memory and sense of direction.

He made a quick pit stop at a candy store and a local flower boutique. He got Panchito, a box of coconut chocolate fudge and a small bouquet of maroonish red tulips. He knocked on the hotel room door once he got back.

“Come in!” Panchito called.

He pushed the door open with his shoulder and smiled brightly. Panchito was wearing a white bathrobe the hotel provided and was distracted watching La Usurpadora. 

“Hey.” José greeted, putting the fudge and flowers on the desk. “Sorry I took so long, I couldn’t find any places selling tulips to save my life.” Unlike his knowledge with Miggy, José knew he was a good liar. 

The word ‘tulips’ caught Panchito’s attention and craned his neck to see the bouquet on the desk. “Aw, you got me flowers?” José held up the box of fudge, “And chocolate? Oh mi amor, eres el mejor!” He bounced up and did a little skip before meeting José at the little desk and pecking him on the cheek before taking the box from him. “Oh, you’re wet. What happened to your umbrella?”

José had been carrying it around his wrist ever since he left Miggy’s little hideout. “The wind blew it out of my hands for a moment.”

Panchito chuckled and shoved a whole square of fudge in his beak, leaving smears of coconut near the corners. “Maybe going out in a downpour was a bad idea.”

“It’s worth it to see you happy.” 

“D’aww.” Panchito teased putting a chuck of the fudge in José’s mouth. “You’re so sappy.” He sat back down on their bed with the box of fudge on his lap. José changed into pajamas and joined him, jumping into the middle of a complicated love triangle in the show. Eventually they fell asleep. That had to be José's favorite part of their relationship.

The talks and the serenades were nice, but he was a sucker for physical affection. He wasn’t as big on PDA as Panchito was, but he still loved being physically held and cuddled. Sleeping in the same bed as someone was basically saying, ‘I’m trusting you in my most vulnerable moment, please don’t do anything while I’m unconscious’.

He had a girlfriend in highschool who would wait until he fell asleep to go see her other boyfriend. He didn’t know she was doing it until about four months into the relationship and ever since then he’s had trouble falling asleep with his partners. But he never had an issue with Panchito. It may have helped that they’ve shared a bed before platonically in college, or the fact that the rooster fell asleep before him. Either way he loved Panchito and loved that he trusted him wholeheartedly. Which is why he needed that ring back to propose. 

In the morning José woke up to Panchito fast asleep next to him, drool slowly leaking out of his mouth. He got out of bed as carefully as possibly and left a note saying he was getting breakfast.

He didn’t even bother changing out of his pajamas as he made his way to the lobby. He walked outside just a few paces before someone whistled behind him.

“Nice pj’s abriano.” Miggy, as promised, was leaning against one of the huge potted plants. Twirling what looked like a grandmother's black silk choker with some sort of jewel encrusted on it.

“Where’d you get that?”

He shrugged, “An old woman fell asleep on a bench.” José sighed, exhaling through his nostrils loudly to make his disappointment clear. “Hey I’m not the one wearing super snooper pajama pants.”

“They’re comfortable.” José argued weakly, “Besides, I didn’t expect to see you this early.”

Miggy pushed himself off the pot and shoved the choker in his pocket. “The sooner I help you get that ring back, the sooner you’re out of my hair. Now come on, let's get this over with.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long!! I was in a little rut, but the second to last chapter is out now! I'm hoping to get the last one done before Sunday, so hopefully you all stay a little bit more patient, because I'm not done with this story yet. A little warning, again, more Spanish and Portuguese if anything is wrong let me know and I'll try to fix it. There's also some depictions of criminal activity such as stealing, mentions of death as well as the Parisian catacombs, a small use of tobacco, and more mentions of homelessness. That's all, so please enjoy!.

The surf shop was busy, like around thirty people or more people. Mostly tourists browsing for tacky souvenirs to bring back to loved ones back at their original homes. José thought he was going to be the most ridiculous looking person there since he was in super snooper pajama bottoms and a white short sleeve with a bright yellow happy face. But there were too many hawaiian shirts, fanny packs, and ugly sandals that looked like they had time traveled from the 1980s for him to feel really embarrassed. 

“Are you sure this is the place?” He whispered to Miggy, who was holding himself incredibly well.

“Positive, you just need to know who to talk to.” José followed Miggy towards the back where the dumb toys were stored. Like the slinkies that didn’t work, the yoyos with the weak strings, and soft plastic dinosaur toys. There was a return desk where a young looking cat was filing through different papers.

Miggy cleared his throat and the woman looked up, “¿Si?”

Miggy dug in his pocket and slid the choker over towards her, she glanced at it before snatching it up for herself. “Una donación para Ximena El Tejón.”

The woman examined it closely but secretly. Finally she put it in a small paper bag and handed it back to Miggy, “Maracas right? Joaquim said you donated a ring the other day, you trying to get on her good side or something?” Her English accent sounded weirdly New Storkan, like she just walked out of the Bronx or something.

“No, I’m just finding more stuff than I know what to do with.” It was at this moment that the woman seemed to notice José.

“Who’s your friend?”

Miggy looked back at José as if he forgot he was there, “This is my, uh mentor.” He said, only stumbling a little bit. The woman didn’t seem to care. 

She squinted at José as if determining how well to cook him. “You look like the parrot that’s fought that plant in Brazil with Scrooge McDuck.” 

Before panic could fully take over him Miggy burst out laughing, “This guy? The coolest thing he’d ever done is steal a watch from Fulgencio Batista’s grandson. And the fact that you're saying that all parrots look alike…”

This time the woman looked a little panicked, “Aw hell no, that’s not what I meant. There’s just some, similarities. That’s all.” She stood up, a piece of paper in her hand. “Come on then, I’ll take you to the door.” Miggy followed her and José followed him. She led them outside to a side entrance where the break rooms would usually be. Instead, when she opened the door, they were met with an old, damp, creepy looking staircase that led into the void.

“Down here?” José questioned, speaking up for the first time.

The woman nodded, writing something down before tearing it off and handing it to José. “Tell Ximena or one of her bodyguards that Osma Arañazos sent you.” Miggy went down the first step first, and as the parrot was about to follow Osma put a gentle hand on his shoulder. “If you’re free you know where to find me.” She said with a wink before walking away, moving her hips more than need be. He glanced at the paper and saw that she left her number.

He shuddered, maybe because the staircase was emitting a cold breeze or maybe because that woman looked old enough to be his daughter, either way he sucked it up and followed Miggy into the darkness. Closing the door behind them. 

“Ack.” Miggy made a strangled noise but he didn’t seem to fall. José pulled out his phone and turned the flashlight on. In front of him Miggy was gripping the handrail like it was the only thing that mattered in the universe. He breathed out, “Missed a step.” He muttered before setting himself straight again.

They must’ve walked down the single staircase for five minutes, every step getting colder and colder. The stairs themselves were old and mushy with leftover moisture trapped in the air, it was the type of wood that would be used for a bridge in the middle of a creek. 

Eventually more lights were shining ahead of them, illuminating the stairs in front of them. José turned his flashlight off and stuffed his phone back in his pajama bottoms pocket. As more light appeared, so did more noise. 

Finally there was a small doorway up ahead with a saloon style door that swung open. Miggy swung it first and stepped in, José waited for the doors to calm down before doing the same. “Oh my god.” He found himself muttering. 

It was like some sort of cave. Rock walls, floors, and even the ceiling. Illuminated by flickering fluorescent lights that had dead bugs littering the inside. There were metal signs posted around the place describing different events and where to meet. People of all kinds were also wandering around. Rich men and women with two of three hefty bodyguards surrounding them. People dressed in all black and people who looked like they belonged in a glam rock band. It felt like accidentally walking on a movie set. 

Miggy nudged him, “Come on, Ximena El Tejón’s office is down this way.” They went left and tried to blend in as much as possible. But them being a kid and a man in pajamas it was hard not to attract at least a little attention. Most just side glances and weird looks, besides that they blended in quite smoothly. 

There were metal doors that looked like they came from high security prisons installed into the walls with different names imprinted onto them. “How many criminals run from here?” José asked as quietly as he could.

“Depends. I’ve heard different numbers every time I ask. But this little dig out has been active for criminal activity since 1944.”

“Ugh, this place reminds me of the catacombs in Paris.”

“Have you been to the catacombs in Paris?”

José nodded, “I used to be a flight attendant, there was a layover in Paris one time and I decided to go with a tour group. Worst mistake of my life.” And considering his life that was saying something. 

“That bad?”

“It was just weird. All those skulls, they used to be people. Had relatives, loved ones, stories. And then one day they’re just-”

“Gone.” Miggy finished. A strange somber silence fell between them for a moment. “Do you think dying is scary?” He asked timidly, playing with the brown bag that had the choker in it.

“No, not really. It's natural. It happens.”

“Unfairly, it happens unfairly.” José studied the young boy, he refused to look at him. His expression looked angry, like he was just bit by a mosquito or something, but ten times worse. He was about to speak up again when Miggy’s steps faltered. They looked up at a door a little bit ahead of them. El Tejón was engraved in the metal. 

“This is it.” Miggy said with a sigh. Both of them just stood there for a moment, before looking at each other and José deciding to bite the bullet.

He knocked three times, the last one he knocked too hard and a twinge of pain went up his knuckle. Nothing happened for a moment, then two, then three. “Should we knock again?” He asked.

The kid looked confused, he opened his beak multiple times to try and start a sentence but it faltered every time. Finally a loud creaking noise made them both jump. The big metal door was slowly being pulled open from the inside, after a moment a big buff bear in a nice suit emerged from behind the door.

“What.” It sounded like a command, not a question.

Words failed them both for a moment, the bear was obviously more than capable of taking both the birds out in one swing. He had to have stood higher than seven feet as well, and that added with his grizzled voice made him extra intimidating.

“Uh,” Miggy swallowed, realizing he needed to talk, “We, we have a donation for Ms. El Tejón.”He said with an extra nice smile, holding up the brown bag. José followed in suit and held up his piece of paper. Besides the woman's number it also had the authenticity proof of the choker. 

The man just stared at them for a moment, finally he exhaled through his nose and stepped back, opening the door further. José went in first, grabbing Miggy’s wrist to make sure he wouldn’t bail.

The office had a smell of tobacco in the air. There were whiteboards with different events and money talleys and a messy bookshelf and desk shoved in the corner. A bigger desk was in the middle of the room, with pictures and documents skewed across the top of it. The big leather chair was turned away from them, it looked like the chair itself was smoking.

It twirled around suddenly, “Do you think I should accept Gregory Cuerno's offer of a yacht party or go with Yasmin Gogh to check out her score from the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum?” In the chair was a shorter woman, she had black lines dragging down her eyes and speckled grey and brown fur. She had black hair in a messy high bun and was decked out in golden jewelry, even her cigar had a golden tip.

She looked up and got an amused expression on her face, “Oh!” She put the cigar out and puffed out the rest of the smoke. “You must be Miguelito Maracas! I appreciated that ring you sold to me. Very nice ruby, a little small. Anyway.” She stood up and rounded the desk corner, like a magnet, as she got closer the two birds stepped back. She was repelling them. “What is it this time?” She was genuinely curious.

They exchanged a look, José took the bag from Miggy, luckily he didn’t protest. “Ms. El Tejón, we have come to donate, not sell. This choker that Miggy swiped from a well of older women.” He handed her the bag and the receipt. 

She raised an eyebrow and studied the receipt before shaking the choker onto the desk. “Hmm.” She studied it and picked at the jewel. “This is a smaller sapphire than some other things I’ve gotten.” She looked up and made direct eye contact with José. “Now I know him, but who are you?”

José smiled, “My name is Victor Oliveira, I’m stopping in Cuba on a little spree. I’m mostly active in Brazil.” She allowed him to lightly kiss her hand.

“Huh, how come I haven’t heard of you before?”

“I like my privacy.” It felt weird lying, pretending to be this big fantastic criminal. But at the same time it was a little exciting. Sure, fighting a giant plant and crashing Emma Glamour’s party was also exciting, but this is different. This is dumb excitment, this is if-he-says-the-wrong-thing-he’s-dead-excitment. In fact, the woman whose hand he just kissed, may have dozens of blood on it. Suddenly he felt nauseous.

“I get that. I wish I could, unfortunately I like the attention.” He didn’t like the way she said that. “In fact,” She swiped some papers off her desk and hopped up herself. “Seems like you two like attention as well. Not many people like to deal with me twice. They’re always up to something.”

“We just admire your work.” José said, knowing it didn’t hammer in as well as his previous lies. 

“What’s your favorite crime of mine?” 

“I, personally, loved the heist you organized to rob the royal Ontario Museum.” Miggy piped up. 

“And I heard a rumor that you blackmailed Richard Roberts in Michigan, is that true?” José had overhead the rumor when Richard Roberst himself, a rich politician in Michigan, called Mr. McDuck last time he was visiting and Scrooge implied that he shouldn’t have done something so stupid and let Ximena know about it. That was the thing about Scrooge, he heard your problem but didn’t really listen. He wants people to figure things out on their own, like he claims he did when he was growing up. Which is a whole different topic that José didn’t have the time to think about.

Ximena looked impressed, “I did, he’s a very imbecilic man, you know.”

José forced a laugh, “Yes, so I’ve heard.”

Ximena laughed herself, just the way she laughed proved she didn’t have a care in the world. She could shoot a man right now and wouldn’t even bat an eye at the corpse. She flipped through a little yellow notepad before finding what she was looking for. She ripped it out along with a few other papers she didn’t care about. 

She handed it to José who studied it. Besides a scribbled out to do list it had an address a date and a time circled largely in the middle. “This is your informal invitation to the auction.”

“Auction?” Miggy and José repeated in unison.

She nodded, “Surely you’ve heard, so many crooks will be there selling the little treasures they’ve collected.”

“Oh yes, I’ve heard it in passing, I remember now.” Miggy said, not even looking at the woman in front of them. 

She hopped off the desk and went back to her seat, “Well then, see you there.” That was their cue to go, so go they did. They didn’t speak until they were back up onto the regular streets, which were much hotter than José remembers.

They stayed quiet until a loud gurgling noise caught their attention. Miggy covered his stomach. “Sorry.”

“What’s the last thing you ate?”

“If you count the pistachio ice cream I shoved down my throat, then that.”

“Miggy that was over twelve hours ago.”

“Hey man, you try buying food when half the stores in Cuba are instructed to throw chanclas at you on sight.” José gave him a weird look, “Don’t ask.”

The parrot sighed, “Come on, I’ll buy you some breakfast back at the hotel pirralho.”

“Stop calling me that.” But he followed José back to the hotel anyway, where he rejoiced in grabbing about an arm full of pancakes, donuts, muffins, and three bananas on José's insistence. He grabbed two waffles and two coffees for himself and Panchito.

“I have to go give this to my, partner, you can eat here if you’d like.”

Miggy had already begun to devour a blueberry muffin, “Ok.” Crumbs of muffin shooting out of his beak like projectiles. 

José rolled his eyes and went to go back upstairs, he struggled to press the button, but he only split a little coffee in doing so. He was the only one waiting so that was peaceful, but all moods of peace came shattering down when the elevator door opened and Panchito was on the other side.

“Oh.” He said, stepping out of the elevator. “So you’ve only been up for a few minutes.” He took the waffle and cup of coffee José had grabbed for him. “I saw your note.”

“Ha ha, I can see that. I’m sorry I didn’t wake you up, I wanted you to get your proper rest.”

“I’m surprised you woke up before me, it's hard to get you out of bed before noon.” The rooster chuckled and took a sip of coffee. “Since we’re both here why don’t we just eat in the dining area?”

The dining area where Miggy was currently chowing down on too much food. Where he would definitely see José and Panchito, which all in all, wasn’t a huge deal. Except for the fact that it was.

“Uh, are you sure you don’t want to eat in the room? It’s much more comfortable there.” Panchito shrugged while shoving almost half the waffle in his mouth.

“We’re both already here, plus it’s easier to clean when we’re done.” Not even waiting for José’s answer he started heading towards the dining area. 

He cursed under his breath and followed his blissfully unaware boyfriend. The dining area wasn’t super crowded, mostly tired teenagers on summer vacation fighting hangovers and nice elderly couples just enjoying their mornings. Luckily the one kid José was avoiding had his back to the entrance they walked through. Unfortunately Panchito chose a seat that was a little too close to where Miggy was sitting.

He scarfed down his waffle as fast as he possibly could, he wanted to get out of here, unfortunately Panchito wasn’t getting the hint. “Why are you eating so fast?”

José swallowed a rough patch of waffle down and struggled not to choke. “This is how fast I usually eat.”

“It isn’t though.” Panchito put his utensils down and leaned forward on his elbows. “I think you’re hiding something, mi amor.”

“Ha, me? Hide things from you? Never.” He shoved another piece of waffle in his mouth. “Eu te amo.”

Panchito squinted at him, but seemingly dropped it. José knew he was hard to argue with sometimes, he developed that habit with Carolita when they were kids. He would take some of her food or a skirt of hers and pretend he didn’t know what she was talking about. She would get so frustrated, but with her constant soreness she never really had the energy to fight back, but as her health has gotten better she’s gotten better at holding herself against him. 

Someone sneezed and Panchito turned around to be nice and bless them, José wasn’t paying attention. Until Panchito swatted at his arm lightly. 

“That’s the kid that ran into you the other day.” He nodded over towards Miggy. This caused the parrot's blood to run cold and completely blank on everything for a few moments. When he finally regained himself he tried to be as casual as possible.

“Yes, and?”

“He’s wearing the same clothes as he was that day.”

“Washing machines exist, querido.”

“I know that, but washing machines don’t make clothes look dirtier.” He snuck a glance back at the younger rooster, who was too distracted by ripping apart a waffle like a rabid wolf to notice the attention. “Do you think his family is poor?”

His family, as much as he knows, is well and dead. But of course he didn’t say that. He just shrugged. 

To this Panchito got an annoyed expression on his face, “I would have thought you’d care a little more.”

“I mean, of course I care, but what can we really do?”

“Uh, help?” With that Panchito pushed his chair back and wandered over towards where Miggy was sitting. Panic spiked in him, but before he realized he should stand up and do something, or call out, Panchito had already reached the boy.

José had just started getting out of his seat, but noticing that Miggy was looking at Panchito made him fall back into the seat. His ears started ringing and he directed his attention on the little bit of waffle left on his plate. It felt like hours until he saw either of the roosters move again. Panchito was walking away from the table looking a little worried, Miggy watched him and ended up making direct eye contact with José.

“Actually.” He said standing up, “I will, it’ll make my mom incredibly happy that such nice strangers are lightening her work load.” With that Panchito smiled and motioned for the young boy to follow him.

“José this is Miggy, I offered to wash him up a bit. If that’s ok.” He was challenging him, they were both challenging him. Panchito was challenging him to deny the offer and be a jerk, Miggy was challenging him to tell the truth, but he wasn’t backing down from either of them. 

He stood up and smiled, “Of course, as long as your parents are okay with the idea of you going with a few strangers.” This was challenging both of them.

Miggy’s eye twitched just a little but was able to keep his composure. “I’m sure they won’t mind, you two seem nice. Besides, if you do try something I’m confident I can protect myself.”

Panchito made a teasing victorious face that would be hard for Miggy to decipher, “Well then come on.” Panchito led the way to the elevator. Miggy purposely fell in line with José.

“You should have told me the person you’re proposing to was a guy, now I feel bad for assuming.” Miggy said, voice low enough so Panchito couldn’t hear him.

“You should have denied the offer, now there's a chance that he’ll realize what I’m doing.” José replied in a matching tone.

Miggy just stuck his tongue out before all three of them got on the elevator. “Now are you sure your parents won’t mind?” Panchito asked, obviously just now realizing his kindness may paint him as a bad person to others.

“My mom won’t mind.” Miggy said waving the question off, as if swatting it away.

“And your father?” Again, the boy just shrugged, the ding of the elevator doors opening interrupting whatever he was going to say. 

José was the first out this time, leading the way to their room. He unlocked it and held the door open for the roosters. Miggy slowed down to a stroll once inside the room, he was admiring the cramped room like it was a museum. Panchito had immediately started rummaging through his suitcase for anything that would fit the boy.

The parrot wandered up next to the young boy, not saying anything, just smiling and making sure he didn’t take anything else. After a while Panchito pulled something out with a triumphant ‘ah ha!’ and held it out in front of him for the young boy.

The piece of clothing in question was a small but clean white shirt and a pair of simple blue shorts that may be a little baggy on the boy. “You can have these if you want.” 

It took Miggy a moment but he eventually reached out and grabbed them, he stared at the clothes like someone just handed him a newborn. “Can I… Can I still have my old clothes?”

“Of course! We can wash them for you though, if that's ok.”

“I. Ok.” He gave it and walked into the bathroom. Once the door was shut the couple looked at each other.

Panchito looked worried, like he had an idea of something but was too scared to actually say anything. José himself wasn’t doing any better. That wasn’t how he expected Miggy to react, he was so, whatever with receiving something. He brushed off the ice cream, the food, everything up until now that José had given him. He understood why, the kid obviously hated being pitied on, but being given new clothes. Something else was going on.

“I don’t want to sound mean, but I don’t think he has any parents.” Panchito finally spoke, he pulled on his shirt sleeves as he did, a nervous habit he rarely did. José debated for a moment, come clean and tell the truth? Or go along with whatever his boyfriend was thinking.

“I mean,” Panchito continued, “I’ve seen homeless families, the parents always looked grubbier, unless it's really bad. The kids always have dirt on their face, sure, but they always have relatively clean clothes.”

“Whys that?” José asked quietly, already knowing the answer.

“Because if they’re good parents.” He stopped, he knew José’s past, he knew why he never met his parents. He already knew José knew the answer, but he finished it anyway.

“They’ll put the kids first.” He hugged himself and took a deep breath, “Look, I already knew Miggy. That day he ran into me, he took something off of me and I found him yesterday. His mom’s dead, he never mentioned a dad. He’s living off of stolen goods and criminal connections in an abandoned house.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because-”

“Because I stole a gift he was going to give to you.” Both the adults' heads snapped back to where Miggy had opened the bathroom door quietly, how neither of them noticed he had no idea. “He didn’t want to ruin the surprise.”

Miggy still had his hat and bandana, but he wore the baggy white shirt that hung low under his knees, and the shorts were similarly baggy.

Panchito looked at him and then José, “What gift?”

José rubbed the back of his neck, “Well, it’s still a surprise. We’re trying to get it back.”

Miggy dropped his old clothes near the door and went to stand next to José, “I sold it to someone connected to Ximena El Tejón.” 

Panchito's beak dropped open, “What the hell was so important that Ximena El Tejón bought it?”

“If we get it back you’ll see.” Miggy said, and the parrot appreciated it. He was keeping up the charade enough so that José could still propose with enough of a shock factor.

“We got into her office and she personally invited us to an auction, she’s selling it there.” José dug through his pockets and handed Panchito the makeshift invitation.

He studied it for a moment before sighing, “I mean, I appreciate you trying to help Miggy, but is it really worth it? Going into a crime boss’s auction for a simple gift? I really don’t mind not getting anything you know.” The last sentence was directed at José.

Miggy just smiled, “I think it is.” He smiled at José, which gave him enough of a push to say the same.

“Me too, we’re not asking for you to come, just for you to understand what's going on.” Everything was quiet for a moment as Panchito studied the little piece of paper again. Finally he sighed and then smiled.

“If it’s really important to you guys, then yeah. I want to help.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. This is a lot longer than I expected. Sorry I didn't get this out sooner but holy shit this took a lot longer than I thought. I'm separating the ending into it's own little epilogue chapter that (hopefully) won't take as long to finish. Just for some warnings, again more uses of Spanish and Portuguese, so let me know if any of it is wrong. There's also more mention of death, and some characters do almost die. So be warned about that. Theres also mentions of criminal activity and abandonment. Besides those things I think that's everything you need to know, so enjoy!

In the three days up until the auction, Panchito had insisted that Miggy stay with them. “It will save more time to plan for what exactly we’re going to do.”

“Oh caramba, what do we have to plan? We have an invite, so all we need to do is just walk in right?” Miggy asked.

José shook his head, “If that lackey girl almost recognized me then we need to be a little bit more cautious.”

To this, Miggy rolled his eyes. “I know what she was talking about, the feast of the flower thing, Scrooge McDuck and his family were down there but that wasn’t you with his nephew was it? Was it?” José and Panchito exchanged a look. “Oh Dios mío it was.”

“Yeah we uh went to college with Scrooge McDuck’s nephew.” Panchito explained.

“It was Panchito, Donald and I in a band, we still keep in touch with him.”

“We were at the manor just last month.”

If it were possible, Miggy’s beak would have hit the floor. “Santa mierda, we really are screwed.”

“First of all, watch your language, second of all. We don’t know that yet.” Panchito said sitting down next to Miggy on the bed. “You said Ximena didn’t recognize him.”

“Yeah, but she started out as a con artist. She was probably acting, esa pequeña viscosa-”

“Woah, woah, hold on for a minute. We don’t know what she knows, we know that.” Miggy gave him a weird look and Panchito seemed to realize he wasn’t really making sense.

“What Panchito means is, we know she’s suspicious, but we’re not certain she knows who I am. So work with what we got.”

“If she’s suspicious then how are we supposed to go to the auction and not rouse any more suspicion?” 

Panchito snapped, “Disguises, it worked when we snuck into Emma Glamour’s party.”

“Emma Glamour?” Miggy repeated.

“Emma Glamour only worked because no one knew who we were. The big thing was to make sure Graves didn’t recognize Dewey, we weren’t a concern.” José reminded him. 

Panchito stood up, “Yes, but we were disguised, were we not?”

“We were not, we switched hats is all.”

“That counts as a disguise.”

“It really doesn’t.”

“Uh, hola?” They both looked at the boy, “Can you not argue like an old married couple when I’m in the room? I would like to keep my food down.”

José rolled his eyes but Panchito snorted, “That was barely a disagreement.”

“You haven’t seen us fight.” José said with a small smile. He and Panchito don’t argue a whole lot, if they do its over stupid stuff like who ate the last ice cream sandwich or over directions. When they do fight it can escalate into them screaming in either Portuguese or Spanish, which usually ended up with them laughing at something they mispronounced.

After three days of conversations similar to the first one they were somewhat ready to go through with their plan. It was one of the weakest plans José had ever been part of but they ran out of time and had to go through with something.

The auction was being held at some old government building that was abandoned after some priest was murdered there. “He smuggled drugs and money across the U.S. border.” Miggy explained while they were on their way. “Some people say the church itself hired the killer, but he was never caught so we’ll never know.”

“Charming.” José muttered. He pulled at the bow tie that was seemingly trying to choke him. Panchito bought it for him the previous day so that he could blend in more, he was even forced to do a different hairstyle than what he was used to. He looked like he was about to deny a check to your account.

Panchito, also not risking being caught, wore a white button up and made sure he had pants that covered his spurs. Why he thought he needed his spurs in the first place was lost to José, but he didn’t say anything. He’s learned not to question the things that Panchito does. 

Once in college he walked into his dorm room only to see Panchito staring at a nacho sticker on the ceiling while wearing those glasses where the eyes pop out with those spring things, he never got any context for that scene now that he thinks about it.

Miggy, who tried to bite both the adults, was not dressed up whatsoever. He was back in the baggy white shirt and blue shorts Panchito gave him. He wasn’t wearing his hat at least, the downside was that it was on his back, attached by a string around his neck that somehow didn’t bother the kid. Not a lot seemed to bother him, well José bothered him but that's not what he meant.

The whole outside of the building was reminiscent of what Emma Glamour’s party looked like, just a little bit more crowded and architecturally appealing. Duckburg was nice, but the buildings were kind of bland compared to the buildings in Brazil or Cuba or any other country that's South of the United States really. In José’s opinion anyway.

There were multiple guards outside, not just the one intimidating one. There were criminals crawling all over the place, a few he recognized from the news, but most of them just fit the stereotype of what a criminal looked like. José counted four people with eyepatches just walking to a guard. The others were smoking or fiddling with knives and stuff like that. A few had briefcases and luggage, most likely filled with valuable things to trade or money to buy things from the auction. 

Miggy nudged him, “How good are you at lying?”

“I’m decent.”

“Decent?” Panchito echoed back. “Zé, you once got twenty dollars outta McDuck, and trust me that isn’t an easy thing to do.”

“Yeah, maybe don’t mention Scrooge McDuck here.” Miggy whispered, “If anyone finds out you guys are connected to him, then you may end up with a knife in your chest.”

“They’re not that violent, are they?” Panchito asked. The younger rooster just responded by nodding towards feuding tigers over a briefcase. Both of them were baring their teeth and one looked like he was reaching for some sort of weapon. “Nevermind.” Panchito gulped.

“If we lay low we should be fine.” José reassured, but his knuckles were starting to hurt by how tightly he was holding onto the makeshift invitation Ximena gave him.

The guard they had walked up to, a big brown bear with a whited out eye and a nasty looking scar, looked them up and down. “Nombres?”

“Uh, Victor Oliveira con Miguelito Maracas y Junípero Gonzalez. El es el más uno.” He handed the crumpled up yellow note and held his breath as the bear looked it over. 

Finally he grunted, “Eres bueno, disfruta de la subasta.” He handed the invitation back and stepped aside to let the group in.

It was much colder in the building than José expected. The floors seemed to be seeping the warmth out of his body with every step and the walls were so clean they were almost glowing. It all felt a little off, which in turn felt wrong. 

And to think, if Nestor and Pedrão hadn’t helped him and Carolita out, he might be walking among these criminals. There were rumors in the village he grew up in that an underground group of gang members ran amuck at night, stealing lots of valuable things. He could have been recruited by that gang and never even went to college. Which meant he wouldn’t have met Panchito or Donald, and Carolita may have never met Zico and Zeca’s dad to have them in the first place.

The whole idea of it made him shiver, but luckily the roosters didn’t question it as they seemed to be cold too.

“Ok.” Panchito said, clapping his hands lightly. “Where are the treasures and stuff stored before the auction?” 

“I’ve never been here before personally, but I’ve heard that they use the old church offices when they’re here.” Miggy said, twiddling his thumbs around, obviously unsure about himself.

“Well only one way to find out, the faster we get out of here the better.” José muttered the last part under his breath before leading his boyfriend and the kid they had basically kidnapped into the crowd. 

Whoever arranged the party had the pews moved, so the already large floor was even larger without any obstacles. Not a whole lot of people were inside the building yet, obviously wanting to stay outside for some reason, but it was enough to make a decent commotion. 

The three of them kept to the walls as casually as possible, which was easy enough since no one was paying any mind to them. Near back where the priest would stand was a door that said ‘oficinas’ which was exactly where they wanted to go. 

He tried to push it, and then pull it, but nothing happened. “It’s locked.” He whispered to the others. 

“What do you mean it’s locked?” Panchito whispered back, gently pushing passed Miggy to look at the lock. 

“I mean it’s locked, what else do you think I mean?” José shot back after Panchito did the same thing he did originally. 

Before the couple could spiral into a silly little argument Miggy shoved through them with something in his hand. “Cover me.” He whispered, it took a second but both Panchito and José fell into place blocking Miggy from the view of others at the party. Which meant they were shoulder to shoulder, well head to shoulder anyway, Panchito was too tall. 

After a few moments of José looking for somewhere to rest his eyes on he heard a click and then a creak. He peaked behind him and saw Miggy himself peaking through the now open door. After another moment he pushed the door open even more and motioned for the adults to follow him.

José walked backwards, tugging on Panchito’s sleeve as a way to let him know to follow him. Once they were both in the somehow even colder hallway Miggy closed the door behind them and locked it again.

“Where now?” Panchito whispered, his breath was visible.

Miggy shrugged but started walking. “Santo infierno, hace frío.”

“I wonder why it's so cold anyway.” José muttered, rubbing his arms to try and get the friction to warm him up.

“Maybe they’re keeping the treasure cold.”

“Why would they need to keep the treasure cold?”

Panchito shrugged, “I don’t know, ask the criminals holding an illegal auction.” It was a bite, a weak bite but a bite nonetheless. Something he only did when he was nervous, and José didn’t blame him for being nervous. All of them were nervous.

Down the hall, around a corner, a muffled conversation carried down the hallway. “Go into a room.” Miggy whispered harshly. Panchito turned and tried the closest door to him, but it wasn’t moving. So José tried a door behind them that worked. He ushered the other two in before he went in himself. Once everyone was in he closed the door behind him and held his breath.

The glass in the doors were all a little cloudy, so you could only make out silhouettes, which José hoped worked for either way you looked in. It took a moment but the steps got closer until two looming shadows passed the door talking about something that was too muffled to hear.

José counted to thirty and then turned to the others, they were on the other side of the door, leaning into the wall like they were about to pass out. “I think we’re ok.” He whispered.

“This office..” Miggy whispered back, staring into the void that is the darkness.

“What about it?” Panchito asked. Miggy just pushed himself off the wall and stuck his hands out so he didn’t run into anything. José struggled to get his eyes to adjust but finally he could faintly see Miggy rummaging around the desk.

“Miggy, what are you doing?” Panchito whispered.

“Looking.” He replied. Panchito and José exchanged a look.

“For?” Panchito encouraged. 

“Ha! Got it.” He emerged from the dark at José's side cupping something small in his hand.

“Is that-”

“It is.”

José smiled his first genuine smile in a while, “Oh! Graças a deus, let’s get out of here.” He opened the door and stuck his head out, the hallway was eerily quiet.

“How’d you know it was in here?” Panchito asked as they stepped out the room.

“I saw Ximena’s purse near the bookcase and just hoped. Now lets go before-” A door crashed open to their left, the place they came from. “Run.” Miggy whispered before taking off. He didn’t need to tell them twice.

As quietly as possible they ran down the hallway towards the place the two shadowy figures came from, but as they turned the corner they were met with a rhino guard and a lion guard. José grabbed both the roosters' wrists and moved to turn around, only to see an eagle and a wolf guard blocking the other hallway.

“Hello boys!” They were forced to back up by the rhino and lion, past the corner and face to face with Ximena El Tejón herself, absolutely swarmed with bodyguards. “Nice of you to drop in Mr. Oliveira, or should I call you Mr. Carioca?”

José’s blood turned ice cold, “You knew?” His voice was a few octaves higher than he would prefer.

Ximena smiled, “The whole time. I see you brought Mr. Pistoles here as well. I must say my little sister loved your show in Acapulco, she said the best part was when you hit Scrooge McDuck’s nephew in the head with a guitar.”

Neither of them said anything, so Ximena walked forward and held out her hand to José. “If you knew then why bring us here?” He asked.

She shrugged, “I told you, I like the spotlight, and what better way to get the spotlight then to have two people close to the McDuck family under my control?” She motioned for him to hand it over.

“We are not under your control.” He bit out instead.

Her smile somehow grew bigger, it was unnerving. “Oh, poor little parrot. I think you are.” She used her other hand to snap and suddenly the ten or so guards in the area started closing in, reaching into their jackets. A panther was much faster than the rest, grabbing Miggy’s bandana and pulling him back into his clutches. He and Panchito moved, but were blocked by other guards.

“Let him go.” Panchito tried to demand, but he was obviously nervous. José couldn’t currently find his voice.

“I’ll let him go, just give me back the ring.”

“Ring?” Panchito asked under his breath. José tried to look at Miggy, but the guards were in the way. He grabbed the ring box from his pocket and put it a little too violently into Ximena’s hands. 

She opened it and admired it, “Ohh imagine how much more this will be worth when I tell people that it came from someone Scrooge McDuck knows personally.” She closed it again, “Ponlos en la jaula.” She said to the lion.

“Jaula?” Panchito squawked. Ximena just turned around and let her bodyguards take care of it themselves, and boy did they do that. In a flash José was off the ground and had his beak clamped shut by a large strong hand that was putting way too much pressure on it. He was too panicked to even focus on his boyfriend or the kid he was with.

After what felt like forever, he was dropped onto the cold floor, but he was dropped weirdly and pain shot through his left arm to the point where he almost wanted to cry. Two more thuds landed near him and then what sounded a creaky old door was slammed closed.

He blinked a few times and tried to sit up without making his arm feel worse. After a moment he realized all three of them were in some sort of jail cell. He groaned, “Why would a church have a jail cell?”

“I think they added it after this became a criminal hotspot.” Panchito said. “¿Estás bien?” He asked lightly, touching José’s arm.

“Me duele el brazo.” He replied cradling his left arm like a baby. “But I’m fine.” He looked around and saw Miggy near the corner with his face in his knees. “Miggy?” Instead of confirming that he was also ok, he shuffled until his back was towards them.

Panchito stood up and helped José up, both of them slowly approaching the young rooster cautiously. “Are you ok?” Panchito asked.

“Leave me alone.” He replied, but it was muffled as his face was still submerged in his knees.

“Well, we’re in a cage, so I don’t think any of us are going anywhere.” Panchito tried some humor, but it wasn’t well timed.

Miggy lifted his head and turned towards them on his knees. Tears were in his eyes, “I wish I never took that stupid ring in the first place.” He rubbed at his eyes and pulled his hat up on his head. “I was fine before you two came into my life.”

“You were homeless…” José tried to sound sympathetic, but obviously Miggy didn’t like his tone.

“So what?! How many times do I have to tell you? I, don’t, matter. I never have! I’m a street rat with a dead mom and a deadbeat dad who ditched me at age six! Six! Can you imagine how scary that was? Waking up one day to an empty house with all the valuable things gone? It was two weeks after my mom died! Two weeks!” He rubbed at his eyes even more violently this time, trying to stop the crying and the voice cracks that were sprinkled in. 

José knelt down and waited for Miggy to calm down enough to stop shaking. “I’m sorry that happened to you, I can’t relate to it, but I can try and understand it.” Panchito knelt down next to him and gave him a look, he took his boyfriends hand with his better hand as a reassurement. 

Miggy sniffled, “Right, like you actually care. This whole thing only happened because you wanted a stupid object back. Why do you even care?”

“That ‘object’ was a very expensive engagement ring.” Panchito gaped at him but he continued to talk anyway. “And the reason I really wanted it back was because I wanted to show the person I love that I want to stay with him for the rest of my life.” He refused to look at Panchito right now, he didn’t need to cry right now. 

Miggy stared at him, but forced a scoff. “You don’t need an object to do that.”

“No, you don’t, some people choose not to. But I wanted to.”

“Why?”

José chuckled to himself, “Why? I guess I’m just a sap.” He blinked multiple times to try and not cry. “Your mom sounded like she was nice, my mom was not. But your dad sounds like a bastard, which I can actually relate to.”

Miggy sniffled and finally looked at him, “What?”

“I told you I used to pickpocket. The last time I actually lived in the same house with my parents was when I was, four? I think?” The kid finally looked at him, “Look, just because some shitty people around you have made you feel like you don’t matter, doesn’t mean they’re right. Of course you matter, Miggy, you always have. And you always will, pickpocket or not.”

Panchito nudged him and he looked to see that he himself was crying, “I love you so much.” He said with a huge smile, it was almost kind of funny.

Miggy had lowered his head again, “Miggy?” José asked gently. “If it’s too much-” He was interrupted when the young boy had leaned forward enough so that his forehead was resting on José’s shoulder, he wasn’t full on sobbing but it was very obvious he was crying relatively hard. 

At first he was unsure of what to do, but eventually gave in and just let the boy cry for a moment. Even allowing Panchito to lean his head on his other shoulder. After a few minutes he used his hand to guide Miggy’s head to look up. “Are you ok?”

Miggy sniffed and leaned back, “I’m better now.”

Panchito smiled, “Good.” He stood up and offered a hand to Miggy, “Now let's get out of here.”

Miggy took the offer and allowed Panchito to help him get up, “What? But how? She has the whole place against us.”

Panchito waved him off, “Ah, nonsense. We’ve been in tougher situations. Right Zé?”

José stood up and dusted off his pants, the floor was disgusting. “Uh, we’ve been through so much I can’t remember.” He looked around at his surroundings. It looked like they were in what used to be the basement, it was cold and damp and all around really unpleasant.

“Do either of you have your phones on you?” Miggy asked, “Do people still even have phones? I get all my information from passing conversations.”

“First of all, they took my phone. Second of all, you need to go to a home with access to the internet.” José said. 

“They took my phone too, both of them actually.” Panchito checked his pockets as if he didn’t trust himself, but turned out to be right.

“They took my lock pick, and I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t even work with this lock.” He leaned his forehead against the bars and tried to look at the lock. “This thing looks like it’s older than all of Havana.”

José stood next to him, still cradling his bad arm, he must’ve tweaked a muscle or a nerve or something dumb like that. “Yikes, that is old.”

“Old enough to just smash?” Panchito asked, standing on the other side of Miggy.

José shook his head, “It’s well taken care of, it’s old but it's strong y’know?” 

Miggy groaned, leaning back and tilting his head back like he was about to do a backbend. “This is so annoying, I don’t have any sharp things on me either so-”

The mention of sharp things made both the adults light up, “The spurs!” They shouted in unison.

Miggy jumped, “Huh?”

Panchito hiked up a pant leg and showed off his spurs. He took it off and twirled it around to hand it to Miggy. “You think you can lock pick with this?”

Miggy just stared at it in awe, “Why do you have spurs?”

José scoffed, “He’s been a wannabe gaucho since college.” Miggy took the spur and struggled for a minute or two with the lock before it finally opened with a groan.

“Ha! Why was that so freaking hard?” He asked, giving the spur back to Panchito. “What now?”

“Is there a back door?” José asked.

Miggy shrugged, “Even if I knew there’s bound to be guards right? We can’t just walk out of here. And what would we do after anyway? I’ve heard Ximena has the whole Cuban police force on her pay-offs.”

“If she’s paying off the police here, maybe we can get some other government involved?” Panchito suggested.

“What other government? Haiti? That’s over six hundred miles from here, that's enough time for every single one of these crooks to bounce before they even hit land.”

“I wasn’t talking about an actual country government. Do you remember Donald telling us that Ms. Beakley was a spy?” That last part was obviously meant for José, Miggy looked like he was just told that rain isn’t real.

“S.H.U.S.H. right?”

“Yeah, what if we call them?”

“How?”

“We could text Donald, what time is it in Duckburg?”

“We’re three hours ahead.”

“Perfect! So we just find one phone, text Donald so he can tell Mrs. Beakley what’s happening, and she can send for local S.H.U.S.H agents to storm the place!”

“I’m sorry, I feel like I’m missing some context clues here.” Miggy said, continuously glancing back and forth from one adult to the other.

“You don’t need to worry about it right now.” José reassured. “We just need to focus on finding our stuff. Did anyone see which way the guards went?”

Miggy shook his head, but Panchito spun around in a circle. “They threw us in the cage, then they closed the door then went to our left, which means they went through one of those doors.” He waved towards two doors that were well spaced off and obviously led to very different places.

“You don’t know which door?” Miggy asked.

Panchito shook his head, “I got worried about you two.”

“Well how are we going to decide?” Miggy asked. “We can’t just flip a coin.”

“Which doorknob is warmest.” Panchito threw out randomly.

“That’s… Actually a good idea.” José said. Miggy and Panchito went to check the door on the right while José checked the one on the left. “Mines like ice.” He called.

“Then it’s ours, come on.” They waited until he was with them again before Panchito opened the door just enough to peak through it. “I don’t see anyone.” He whispered.

Miggy stood on his tiptoes to try and look through the crack. “Go, but be sneaky.” He suggested. Panchito went in first, followed by Miggy with José tailing it at the end of their little line.

The hallway was short and surprisingly well lit, there was only one other door at the end, when opened it showed off a tight staircase that led up and up into seemingly nothing. They kept the same little line formation as they climbed the stairs, as they went up the temperature also went up. Where it was leading was a mystery that made José more uneasy with every step. Why, he couldn’t tell.

As they finally reached the top, after maybe ten minutes. “This was definitely added by the bad guys.” Panchito muttered. 

“Really?” Miggy said with a tone of sarcasm. “What gave you that idea?” Panchito shot him a look over his shoulder but had a smile so it didn’t come off as serious.

The door at the top didn’t match the white walls and strangely warm marble stairs. It looked like a door to an outhouse or an old abandoned shed. Panchito opened it just a crack and glanced around, it was dead quiet on the other side.

After a moment he pushed it open, “Santo Huitzilopochtli.” Panchito muttered under his breath. Miggy and José both craned their necks to see what the spectacular thing was. Panchito completed the last few steps and walked into the room, allowing the other two to see.

“Oh Dios mio.” Miggy got super excited and basically skipped into the room. The room in question was a glass dome like room that was high above the roof of the abandoned church they had entered in. All around them were chests full of gold and jewelry and not to mention pieces of art still in frame, old scrolls, and nearly everything in between.

While the kid ran around admiring everything José was standing near the entrance absolutely stunned. “Did we walk into a mini money bin?” Panchito asked. He meant to respond, but all that came out of the parrots mouth was a few stuttered words. This felt wrong, even with well over two hundred crooks, it felt like too much for the lot of them.

“Who cares? This is great! They have my lock pick, so they must have your guys phones!” Miggy was digging through one chest, stopping every so often to admire a necklace or a ring. 

Panchito started looking around as well, but the looming sense of terror kept José in his spot. He opened the door behind him and peered into the hallway that was really bright, then seemed to drop off the planet with how dark it got.

“Zé.” Panchito called. He glanced back and saw the rooster holding his phone. 

He took it, “Thanks.”

“Are you good?”

He shook his head, “Something seems. I don’t know, off?”

“Well, yeah. We just discovered a treasure room in an abandoned church full of criminals. Of course things are gonna seem off, but we’ve been through a lot worse.” He went to join Miggy in looking through the chests, but what he said made a lot of sense. They were already caught once, and unless they’re unwillingly playing into another trap set up by Ximena, then they’ll find a way out. 

He and Panchito have been in worse situations. If they can beat a giant man eating plant then they can definitely get out of here with their heads on their shoulders.

“Oh wow, great service.” Panchito remarked as he switched his phone on. “Hi Donald, it’s me. I hope you and everyone else are doing ok.” He said out loud as he typed.

“Skip the decencies, get to the point.” Miggy said, craning his neck to look over the older roosters shoulder at the phone.

“Alright, alright. Anyway, we are in a tight situation-”

“Just say sitch, don’t people still do that?” Miggy interrupted.

“No, people said that in the early 2000s. Anyway. We are in a tight situation, the criminal Ximena El Tejón has kidnapped us and is holding us in.” He turned to José, “What was the address?”

“Uh.” He dug the piece of paper out of his pocket, the only thing left in his pocket, and handed it to his boyfriend. Panchito typed it in, double checked it, and then handed it back to José.

“If Ms. Beakely could maybe alert a S.H.U.S.H spy in Cuba of our location that would be great. Please hurry.” Then he hit send and gestured towards the other two. “Now what?”

“Now I guess we wait.” Miggy said.

“We can’t wait here, if someone comes in here then we don’t have an exit.” José pointed out.

“Sure we do, we can just jump out the window.” Miggy pointed at the window that was currently hooked shut. Panchito and José looked down through the window, the secret little dome was maybe a good seven hundred feet off the ground. They exchanged a look. “Ok, maybe not.” Miggy admitted. 

“But do we risk going through that long staircase again?” Panchito asked. “If someone comes up, then we’ll just be stuck here again.”

José thought for a moment, unless they risked it, they were going to be stuck here either way. “We should risk it.” He decided. “Go down the stairs quick and easy, hope Donald isn’t on a crazy adventure and can get us help quickly.”

He led them back to the entrance and started taking two steps at a time down the sickeningly straight staircase. Just the movement of going down in such a straight line so fast made him a little nauseous after awhile.

Halfway down there was a quiet little buzz. He slowed down and looked over his shoulder. Panchito, who was at the end of their little line, was glancing over his phone like a mad man. “Donald sent me a whole paragraph about how stupid we are.”

José rolled his eyes, “He’s one to talk.” He muttered. “Is he sending help?”

Panchito continued to scan for a moment before visibly relaxing, “Yes, Ms. B knows. So hopefully we won’t have to wait long.”

They continued down the stairs until they were back in the hallway. “Where do we wait?” Miggy asked.

“Maybe we could go back into the cell?” Panchito suggested.

“I can pick a lock, but I don’t know how to lock it back. Especially not without the key.”

“It’s the same as picking it, just apply more pressure to the bottom and move the top one around a lot more.” Both Panchito and Miggy looked at him like he was crazy. “It’s a party trick!” He huffed, trying to defend himself.

He went to open the door that led back into the basement, but heard some noise on the other side. He held up a finger to let the roosters know to be quiet, but it was with his bad arm so he winced.

“When Ximena finds out they got out we’re screwed.” It was muffled but it was enough for José to make out the conversation.

“They couldn’t have gone far.” Another voice reassured. “They probably went to find their phones so-” 

He tore his ear away from the door, “Go back!” He urged.

“What?” Miggy and Panchito said in unison.

“Go back!” He had to physically shove them to get the point across. They ran through the hallway, and just as they hit the stairs the door opened.

Unluckily a guard had really good eyesight, “Hey!”

“Go go go!” José yelled, his mind was spinning, not to mention his feet were starting to hurt with how many times they had gone up and down stairs today. He could hear his heartbeat pounding in his skull, getting louder and louder with every step.

In less than five minutes all three of them basically collapsed back into the dome room. Panchito and José slammed the door behind them and started blocking it off with chests and tables. Meanwhile, Miggy unhatched the window and stuck his head out. “I see some cars!”

“S.H.U.S.H cars?” Panchito asked, severely out of breath.

“I don’t know! How am I supposed to tell?” The guards pounded on the door, screaming and swearing at them in Spanish like their life depended on it. 

José went to the window and stuck his head out next to Miggy, the rim where the glass met the actual building was maybe three inches wide, hopefully that would be enough. He took the first step out.

“Zé!” Panchito called.”What the hell are you doing?”

“We got nowhere else to go!” He replied, his voice cracked like he was going through puberty again. Once he felt stable enough he held out a hand to Miggy, who in turn just stared at it, he looked terrified. “I won’t let anything bad happen to you.” José said. “I promise.” The table and the chest jumped back about an inch, making all three of them jump. 

It was enough to make Miggy take José’s hand and help him stand on the small ledge. They inched out of the way to allow Panchito to hop through, he managed to close the window behind him and gesture to get down. Still holding onto Miggy, the parrot squatted down and tried not to focus on the searing pain the tight ledge was pushing into his feet. 

Finally, the door crashed open, causing the chest to spill all of it’s expensive contents out on the floor. The three of them wobbled, the wind wasn’t helping either. If it got any strong it could probably knock José over like a feather. 

“¿Qué demonios?” One of the guards called. “We couldn’t have possibly lost them.”

“Look around, find them before those pesky agents find us.” They continued to knock things about, looking around for any sign. José prayed they wouldn’t inspect the window that wasn’t latched. 

Them looking around the room, presumably just destroying it, seemed to last a lifetime. He got cold from the wind, and had to blink tears out of his eyes constantly. Miggy was holding onto his good arm so tight he was probably going to leave a bruise. His eyes were shut tight. 

José couldn’t bring himself to close his eyes, if he was going to fall to his death he would rather see the scenery pass by him, as morbid as it sounds. Not to mention, if he was going to get caught he wanted to go down with Panchito. Just looking at his boyfriend hold his breath and keeping his eyes focused on his own knee made his heart swell. It may be a bad time but José couldn’t help it. He reached out with his bad arm and gently grabbed his hand, snapping his boyfriend's attention back to him.

He blinked and smiled, tears streaming down his face. “Te amo.” He made sure to say it in Panchitos native tongue.

Panchito blinked and returned the smile, lacing their fingers together. “Eu também te amo José.” He whispered. Just the fact that he said it in Portuguese made José feel like he could die happy, he probably was thinking about it.

Miggy opened his eyes and looked at both of them, he looked confused and scared but mostly sad. He closed his eyes and again and sighed, but then he smiled. “Maybe I’ll get to see my mom.” He murmured. “I wonder if she’ll be just as pretty as she was when she was alive.”

For some reason, everything gained a sense of calm. The wind that felt like it was bullying him suddenly felt like it was an old friend. Trying to learn what it missed, almost rocking him in a sense. The noise faded out, the crashing of the treasures even sounded like someone was turning down the volume on a remote. 

He was content, not fully content of course. If it were possible he would love to call Carolita, Zico, Zeca, Donald, Nestor, Pedrão, Afonsinho, even Rosinha. He would love to just call them and tell them that he loved them, and he may be a pain and he may not always be great to get along with, but he truly does love each and everyone of them. He was even grateful for the life he had so far. His parents were shitty, but he had an amazingly kind but stern older sister. He had bad relationships with people he used to call ‘friends’ but he has lots of people now that he would do anything for, and knows they would do the same for him. Hell, he’s had shitty romantic relationships and many many regrets, but Panchito. God, he couldn’t describe how much Panchito means to him.

As long as Panchito Pistoles was with him in his last moments, then he was content.

He allowed himself to close his eyes, but as he did, thundering footsteps roared into the room. 

Suddenly so many people were yelling and throwing things. Miggy unconsciously pressed himself into José and Panchito jumped, almost falling, but was able to stabilize himself with the parrot's bad arm.

“¿Hola? José Carioca? Panchito Pistoles?” Their eyes went wide and they stood up and held onto the rim of the window. The woman who was calling them, a trogon, yelled something in Spanish that José blocked out. Next thing he knew they were being helped out from the ledge. “Are you ok?” The woman asked.

The parrot was too stunned to answer. It seemed it was the same situation with the roosters. She seemed to understand, multiple (assumed) S.H.U.S.H agents led them down the stairs again and escorted all three of them out of the church completely. It was all so blurry, whenever he tried to look back he couldn’t really remember what happened in the time between. The next clear thing he remembers was when a few agents took Miggy away from him and Panchito.

“Hey…” He finally found his voice. “Where are you taking him?”

One agent stayed behind as two others continued to walk with the thirteen year old, “We’re just going to make sure he’s alright.” The agent reassured, but José wasn’t reassured whatsoever.

“You two are lucky you know the McDuck family.” The trogon, whose name was Adonica, told them. “Who knows what would have happened.”

“Ha, yeah…” Panchito tried to say, but he was obviously as out of it as José was. 

“I’ll let you two recover, but we will need questions later.”

“Of course.” José said.

She started to walk away but caught herself, “Oh. By the way.” She reached into her pocket and handed whatever it was to José. “This was on Ximena.” As soon as she walked away he finally looked at what it was. The ring box.

Some medics made them sit down on the curb and examine them. They patched up José’s arm (a dislocated shoulder of all things) and gave each of them their own shock blankets.

They just sat in silence next to each other among the chaos. Hours went by in José’s mind before Panchito slowly rested his head on his good shoulder. “That was. A lot.”

He forced a weak laugh, still not looking at him. “Yeah…”

More silence. “Are you ok?” Panchito whispered, moving his head to look up at him.

Swallowing, he replied. “I don’t know, it’s scary. How fast I accepted I was going to die.” Panchito hummed as a confirmation, he must’ve felt the same. To this the parrot finally laughed a genuine laugh. “And to think, all of this. Because I wanted to be sappy and propose with a silly ring.” He put his face in his hands and tried not to cry.

Panchito lifted his head up and gently took his hands away from his face. “It’s not silly.”

José scoffed, “Yes it is, I could have just asked without it.”

Panchito smiled, “But you didn’t. And I love that about you Zé.”

This finally made him look at him, “Huh?”

“You’re stubborn as all hell, and it's a rarity to see you out of bed before noon, not to mention you always burn the popcorn and tell the lamest dad jokes I’ve ever heard in my life. But you care so much about everyone, even when you hate their guts. Like when I got sick in college with the flu, and you insisted you stay and cook for me, or when you agreed to facetime and listen to my problems even though you had Zico and Zeca. You drop everything when people ask, and I love that. I love you. I have for a while. So no matter what you do, even if it’s dangerously stupid, I’ll still love you.”

He’s not even embarrassed to admit that he started sobbing like a baby, shaking like a leaf and giving in and letting Panchito engulf him in a sweet embrace. He didn’t realize how tired he was. 

He sniffled after a moment and finally collected himself, “I love you too. You’re probably the best thing that's happened to me in recent time.” He lightly pushed himself away. “So.” He opened the ring box. “Panchito Pistoles, will you marry me?”

Panchito wiped his tears on the back of his hand with a smile, “It would be cruel to say no after everything that just happened.”

That made José laugh harder than it probably should have, “It would.”

“So of course I will. I’ll marry you José Carioca.” He allowed him to put the ring on with a shaky hand.

“Can I kiss you?” José asked.

Panchito chuckled, “Always.” So he did.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last chapter!!! Let's go. I'm pretty proud of this fic, considering its the first multi chapter fic I've written ever. Ok, I'll shut up and let you read now. Side-note: This isn't actually José's pov this time! This chapter will be following Miggy!  
> Now just a few quick warnings, there are more mentions of homelessness and a brief explanation of suicidal thoughts. There's some very quick mentions of death and abandonment. Also, last thing, there's no Portuguese in this chapter but there is a lot of Spanish. So if any of it is wrong please let me know! Enjoy!

A week could either drag or go by in a blink, for Miguelito Maracas, the past week was a mixture of both. It was rare for him to really pay attention to what day it was, but after the last week he had it became almost necessary to not lose his mind.

“Are you aware that you’re wanted for multiple thefts?” A S.H.U.S.H agent asked a few hours after the agency had busted him and the two annoying adults that have been tailing him for days from the church.

He sighed, “Yeah... “

“Do you still have the stuff you’ve stolen?” He nodded and agreed to give them the address of his little makeshift hideout. The agency did some digging afterwards and told him that his father, Javiero Cortez, had taken a new identity through shady means in the Florida keys and likely wouldn’t take his son back. As if that was news.

So off he went to a quaint little orphanage that seemed like it was stolen from a movie set. He got a slap on the wrist for the things he stole, but wasn’t charged since he was a minor and was ‘forced to do unholy things’ because of his status as a homeless orphan.

The woman who owned it, a Ms. Angelina Berganza, was a relatively soft spoken woman. She only raised her voice when the younger kids were doing something mischievous like drawing on the walls or messing with the light switches. 

He shared a room with two older boys, Manuel Chucho and Roberto Cocodrilo, both who had been there a lot longer than he had, obviously. “Listen,” Manuel had sat him down before lights out the first night he was there. “We’re used to it being just us up here, so if we do anything out of line or whatever just let us know.”

“Yeah!” Roberto, or Robbie as he preferred. “We just want everyone here to feel safe and comfortable!”

Miggy just blinked. “Wow, um. Thanks.”

They both beamed, “You want to play makeshift poker?” Makeshift poker was literally just poker, but instead of chips or money they traded around a bunch of old rhibo cards. Rhibo cards being a popular card game back when Miggy was five and still had his mom, he recalls having a few before everything went to shit.

It was weird, the whole situation was weird really. Manuel had been here since he was seven and his parents died in a house fire, he was fourteen now. Roberto had been here since he was eight, he was fifteen now. Robbie’s grandmother on his mom’s side had killed his father and then his mom ended up ‘accidentally’ falling off a balcony. The court claims the situations were separate and not related. They should be miserable, they should feel numb and useless like Miggy had for years while he was on the streets. But they weren’t, they were upbeat and hopeful, despite both of them having been here for seven years without being adopted.

“Worse comes to worse Robbie will be released into the public and he’ll get a job.” Manuel said.

“Yeah, and then I can get an apartment and in less then a year Manuel gets released into the wild and he comes live with me!”

Miggy shuffled his cards absentmindedly. “You guys don’t mind? Being alone I mean.”

Manuel shrugged, “We’re not really alone, we’ve had each other since the beginning basically. At this point we’re pretty much brothers.”

“Even if we do end up going to homes, we both have phones from part of our inheritance, so we can always keep in contact. Do you have a phone?”

Miggy shook his head, “The most advanced piece of technology I’ve ever used is the tv at the laundromat.” The rest of the night the boys taught him how a smartphone worked, jokingly calling him an old man for not understanding seemingly simple things. 

By seven o’clock the first morning, Ms. Berganza had already set up thirty three plates of scrambled eggs and bacon. The younger kids had to eat at the table, but since he was older he was allowed to sit with the other older kids in the tv room. Robbie was in control of the remote, channel surfing for some sort of monster truck show. He passed by the news where the words ‘Ximena’ and ‘Escape’ were clearly shown.

“Wait, go back please.” He leaned forward as Robbie did as he was asked and landed back on the news channel.

The news reporter, she looked like a dog or a wolf, looked eerily grim. “Today we have news that Ximena El Tejón, a dangerous wanted criminal, has somehow escaped a maximum high security prison early this morning.”

A few of the kids who knew what happened to Miggy, Robbie and Manuel included, glanced at him to see his reaction. His reaction being, leaning back into the old couch and pretending he didn’t hear anything. Luckily Robbie got the hint and continued on looking for a good show. 

It was raining that day, so again Miggy got smartphone lessons, and learned a lot of random history facts from Manuel. That night he had a weird dream. 

He was back in his old house, the house his great uncle had apparently died building. He was thirteen, but his bedroom was decorated like he was still six. He’s never been able to smell in dreams, not that he remembers anyway, but this time it was very evident that freshly squeezed orange juice was being pressed somewhere in his old house.

“Pin Pon dame la mano, con un fuerte apretón, pues quiero ser tu amigo.” His dream self sat up in his tiny old pilot themed bed. All his valuables were still in place, not swiped while he was asleep to be sold off to ditch your old life in Cuba. Not swiped to ditch your only son. 

The hallways were fuzzy, of course they were, it had been eight full years since he was even near the house. He doesn’t even remember what color the walls were. Once he got to the tiny checkered kitchen everything cleared up.

Near the sink a young looking hen had her back turned to him, quietly humming the rest of Pin Pon to herself. He swallowed something down. “Mamá?”

The woman perked up and turned around with a smile on her face. Her hair was in a messy bun and she had some flour smeared under her eye. “Hola mijo. How’d you sleep?”

“G-good. What are you making?”

“Pancakes and orange juice! That alright?”

“Of course, anything you make I’ll take.”

She laughed her classic airy laugh, the one that sounded like she was laughing on helium or through a fan, it made him laugh just thinking about it. She took his face in her hands, “You’re too sweet to me.”

His eyes somehow stung with tears, “I could never be too sweet with you. Te quiero mucho, mamá.”

She ruffled his hair, where was his hat? “Yo también te quiero. I always will, even in my final moments.” The last part caught him off guard. 

“Huh?”

She was still smiling all motherly, but now there was some sort of menace behind it. “I love you when I wake up in the morning. I love you when I’m making breakfast. I love you when I get in the car to go to work. Hell, I love you even after a jerk in a pick up runs a red light. I’ve loved you ever since the first time I held you my little maracas boy. But loving people doesn’t mean you’re suddenly invincible, anything can happen. Death is a normal thing, and it often targets those who still have a lot to give. You shouldn’t hate it though. Death can give lots of opportunities for life, the only thing you have left is to find those opportunities and see where it goes.”

“But. But it’s unfair. Dad left me, if he doesn’t want me, who will?”

His mother continued to smile, still cradling his face in her hands. “I don’t know, you don’t know. But it’s better to take a leap of faith and try and figure it out, than to sit still and do nothing.”

Next thing he knew he was sitting upright in a pitch black room with two other sleeping teenage boys across from him. He blinked and tears streaked down his face. Luckily he is a quiet cryer, he would have died of embarrassment if he woke the other two boys up with his crying.

Instead of risking it, he got out of bed and snuck into the boys bathroom. Thankfully, now one else was in there at the moment. The clock on the wall above the door blinked two forty eight over and over again until it changed to two forty nine. 

He sighed and looked into the mirror. Ms. Berganza had given him an old band shirt and some gray sweatpants for him to use as makeshift pajamas. His hair looked well groomed for the first time in who knows how long. All in all he looked good, he was well taken care of so far and had already made two potential friends. Then why didn’t he feel good?

He felt, tired in a way. Almost like he was just a normal balloon floating on his way, and then someone just came along and put and immediately popped him. It was expected of course, after the past few days full of intensity, of course he was going to be tired. He didn’t expect to be this tired though.

Sighing again he splashed some water on his face and went back to bed. The chaos of the past few days slowly catching up with him. Stole a ring off a gullible looking guy one day, end up getting kidnaped and part of the reason a few big shot criminals are in custody. Just that sentence alone didn’t feel real, but that's exactly what happened to him.

The only real good thing to come out of it was that he’s safe, and maybe meeting Panchito and José, maybe. They were eccentric and loud, and kind of annoying. At the same time though they were somewhat helpful and thoughtful. It felt nice to have at least one or two people out there who really cared about them.

Eventually he fell back asleep and didn’t have any more dreams, that he remembered anyway.

The next morning the sun was basically targeting all of Cuba, he could have sworn that the pavement outside was melting a little. He had heard the story of that theme park in California that got so hot that womens shoes were getting stuck in the pavement. So if that could happen there it could definitely happen here.

“Alright Miggy.” Manuel clapped his hands after breakfast. “Ready to go?”

“Go? Go where?”

“Shopping.” Robbie said, “Where else?” Miggy wasn’t getting it, and that was apparently obvious. “Clothes shopping. Because you have no clothes.” Robbie clarified.

“What? I do have clothes. What I don’t have is money.”

Manuel rolled his eyes and slapped Miggy on his shoulder. “Money isn’t a problem for us amigo. Ms. Berganza gives us donations once a month so we can buy our own stuff.”

“And we have been combining our money for months to buy-” They both jumped back and did matching poses like they just won the lottery.

“Juego de Blackbriar!” They yelled in unison.

“Juego de Blackbriar?” 

“Oh, dude, we need to show you when we get it.” Robbie assured. “It’s a video game based on Blackbriar.”

“Yeah, I uh, don’t know who that is.”

They ogled at him, “Blackbriar? Aka as Paloma Kaee? The best fictional superhero ever?”

Miggy just shrugged, “I only really know about Gizmoduck.”

Manuel scoffed, “That guy has got nothing on Blackbriar. Come on, we’ll have enough money left to buy you some more clothes.”

They basically dragged them out of the orphanage out into the depths of Hell. They explained the backstory of Blackbriar, a Mexican Pakistani mix botanist who got into a chemical accident and merged with the plants she was working on.

“Everyone says Bushroot, that lame Darkwing Duck villain from the 90s, was the first. But he wasn’t! He was based off of her!” Manuel explained. They were both very attached to the fictional superhero, and Miggy had to admit that the whole concept was kind of interesting.

They stopped at some minor video game store and bought the game first before going towards some weird clothing store that was meant for teenage boys. Robbie handed him the game so that he could look over the cover and read the back. 

Paloma, or Blackbriar, was a falcon who looked like she just crawled out of some sort of swamp. Her eyes were whited out and her whole outfit looked pretty spiffy. She was covered up and looked like the weird spandex type of suit she was wearing was actually useful against danger. All in all, she looked pretty cool.

They all rushed to buy a few new shirts and two pairs of shorts and to get back to the orphanage. They were all sweating and Miggy was definitely dehydrated by the time they got back. It had to be over one hundred degrees outside. 

The rest of the day he watched as Robbie and Manuel switched every so often and played the open world game. A few bored kids came to join them, eventually everyone was getting invested in the boss battles.

“Jump! Jump!” Robbie and an eight year old girl screamed at Manuel.

“I know! I know!” Despite ‘knowing’ he failed to jump and let Ms. Blackbriar get a face full of fireball. Everyone groaned and/or complained about how bad Manuel was. “It’s hard!” He defended.

“How is Mecha Monkey hard?” Robbie scoffed. “He’s a wimp in the comics.”

“He was rebranded as a lethal genius in the game.” The dog hissed, his ears pointing straight up and turning in on themselves. The whole sight was fun to watch.

They got done before dinner and went to bed like normal. They repeated the process for three more days, only stopping the fourth day to go to the beach. It was very strange all in all. Having people, adults and kids, actually care about his well being. 

After so many years alone on the street, you learn that life is cruel and no one will care about you. If they do, they’re probably just using you to get their own way. Besides José and Panchito, no one really genuinely cared. Now he was in a house full of people who always asked if he was having a good day, or complimenting his hat, or sternly but nicely remindinging him to eat. The whole thing was kind of, overwhelming in a way. 

Of course the past week he had he would feel overwhelmed, but the orphanage was somehow more, in a way. Waking up once morning with love when you're not used to it is like a friendly slap to the face, and the stinging didn’t seem to want to go away. Though it was kind of a good sting, warm almost. In a weird affection starved kid way.

On the sixth day he was there Ms. Berganza pulled him aside before lights out. “How’s everything going Miggy?”

He shrugged, pulling on the same shirt he’s been wearing to bed every night. “It’s weird shifting into this, but it's been good. I like Robbie and Manuel.”

She released a relieved sigh and her shoulders relaxed, “Eso es bueno, now. About tomorrow.”

“What’s tomorrow?”

“Dia de adopción. Or adoption day. Around ten o’clock in the morning families and people looking to adopt will start to roll in and do interviews. There will be a lot more people here tomorrow, so it may be a little overwhelming. If you want, after breakfast you can just stay in your room or go out in the town.”

Manuel told him it was supposed to rain all day tomorrow, “I think I’ll just stay in my room, si eso esta bien.”

“Por supuesto! Haces lo que te hace sentir cómodo, cariño.” She blew a kiss, he was still uncomfortable with people in his space. “Tenga una buena noche.”

“Gracias a ti también Ms. Berganza.” With that he dragged himself back to his shared room. Robbie was brushing his teeth and Manuel had already passed out, he said staring at the tv screen for so long made him more drowsy than usual. Made sense, Miggy had heard that too much time on a screen could rot your brain. Most people seemed to spend hours in front of one anyway. It was probably hard with how many screens were distributed everywhere nowadays.

Miggy laid down and turned away from the door Robbie would walk through, he waited for a few moments. Around five minutes later he heard loud footsteps enter the room and immediately try to be a lot quieter. Eventually the other boy settled down and Miggy felt comfortable enough to close his eyes and try to sleep. 

His mind was racing for the first two hours he tried. Thoughts jumping back and forth from his mom to his dad, and then to his time on the streets, to whatever happened with the parrot and the rooster the previous week. It was frustrating, enough time has passed since he got to the orphanage, since the whole thing with Ximena and the ring. So why couldn’t he move on?

Eventually he fell into a restless sleep, he woke up every hour but was able to fall asleep quickly each time. Unluckily he didn’t wake up peacefully at all. A loud shrill noise echoed off the hollow walls around the same time the sun came up.

Miggy sat up and was ready to throw a punch. Robbie and Manuel were both standing over an alarm clock just staring at it as it screamed like a banshee. Eventually Robbie pressed the button with his foot and turned to Miggy with a smile. “Buenos días, Miggy.”

Rubbing the tiredness out of his eyes he tried to focus on the other boys, “Huh? It’s so early.”

“Yeah, but it’s adoption day!” Manuel cried, his tail wagging so fast it could have made a tornado.

“Even if we don’t get adopted we still get to talk to new people and families.” With that the two boys went off to get all dolled up to look presentable. Miggy, only being there for a week that day, threw himself back onto his bed and fell asleep again. Breakfast wasn’t going to be served for another two-ish hours, and he intended to sleep.

He had a short little dream involving a sentient piece of bacon and some sort of tree house, the rest of the details were a little fuzzy, but it was entertaining enough to keep him asleep. He ended up on a boat at one point, down a river with water that looked like moldy oranges. The makeshift raft looked sticky, like caramel or honey. There was like a fifty percent chance there was a monkey wearing a sombrero there too but who knows at this point. 

The rest of the scenery was blurred out, he felt like he was floating. It was similar to how he felt after getting the mierda beat out of him whenever he participated in street fights for some extra cash. He got pretty good, even knocking out a six foot six hippo guy, though it was a little lucky that he slipped on a puddle of oil and hit his head first. Either way, at the beginning he sucked. And whenever he got badly beaten a few nicer people would put him under and wrap him up, looking back on it he probably shouldn’t have let a bunch of strangers use drugs on him in the street. 

Fighting was a good outlet either way though, he got angry expedentionally angry, especially when someone brings up either of his biological parents. He’s had scary violent thoughts before, a rich man spit in his eye once and he got so angry he found an old rusty butcher's knife. Before the thought finished he realized what he was going to think of doing. It scared him in the moment. He was ten at the time, and thinking of ending someone's life, when someone took away his own mom, it made him sick. He dropped it back in the dumpster and didn’t leave his old little hideaway for five days, only leaving to get some food.

He’s never had suicidal thoughts, not really anyway. He’s thought of just laying in bed, not moving to get food or water and seeing what happens. Wouldn’t that be peaceful? Laying in bed, not moving, not eating, nothing. He never did, the pain in his stomach, basically starving himself, hurt too much. It was almost unbearable.

It’s scary, he’s way more messed up than he thought. He’s almost starved well over three dozen times, he’s been beat up to hell, and not to mention he’s been alone through all of it.

Anyway, the dream raft continued down the weird river. Ahead it seemed to drop off, a waterfall. He didn’t panic, he just waited until the inevitable happened. Though it never came.

“Miggy!” Someone was shaking him. He opened his eyes and scanned the room, to his left Ms. Berganza was leaning over him slightly, she looked worried and a little excited.

“Huh?” He said, sitting up and rubbing his eyes again.

“There’s some people to see you.” That made him pause.

“Me? Who’s looking for me?” She smiled and twiddled her thumbs, there was an aura of worry in her posture and her smile.

“Come see for yourself, you don’t even need to change if you don’t want to.” She rushed out of the room, only to go back. “Come come.” She dipped her head back into the hallway.

He blinked and hesitated, but Ms. Berganza seemed to be in a rush. So he grabbed his hat and followed her out of the room. The orphanage all in all was bone chillingly quiet. Only a few kids were sitting in the tv room, earbuds in or videos volume so quiet he couldn’t even hear what was going on. 

At the front of the building near the entrance was where Ms. Berganza’s office and living quarters were. She opened the door to her office and held it open for him. He dragged his feet through her office, keeping his eyes on a giant houseplant she had near the window.

“Saludos, pirralho.” His neck snapped to two chairs pushed back to the back wall. In one was a nicely dressed parrot with a dumb black umbrella. In the other was a decently dressed rooster with spurs on his heels. They both had familiar almost smiles, but kept their distance.

“Mr. Carioca and Mr. Pistoles came to check on you.” Ms. Berganza chirped, sitting at her desk.

Something sparkly caught Miggy’s eye. “You proposed?” He asked, pointing at the ruby ring on Panchito’s left hand.

Panchito admired the ring and chuckled, “Yep. We’re hoping for sometime next spring.”

“But we may have to save up some more money.” José added. “We might be doing something pretty expensive.”

“What's that?” Miggy asked. He still felt sluggish, maybe if he was fully awake he would have got the idea faster. Both of them stood up and José tucked his arms behind his back. He was wearing a boater hat and looked as if he was missing from a barber shop quartet.

“Well…” Panchito said, resting his hand on José's shoulder. “I’m not technically part of the process, but I am going to do classes when we go back to Mexico.”

“Yes, and since we’ll be getting married it’ll be a lot easier.”

“To?” They both smiled at him like they knew a huge secret he didn’t. Which they did.

Instead of answering José just handed him a manilla folder. He gave him a look but motioned for him to open it. It was a foster child license made out to one José Carioca. Miggy’s brain was still a little too sluggish to connect the dots.

“I was the legal guardian of my nephews for four years, and luckily this still counts.”

Finally he put two and two together. “You’re kidding.”

“Only if you want us to be.”

He felt himself lean against the desk, just staring at all the legal documents, half the words didn’t even make sense to him. 

“But you guys live in a different country?”

José shrugged, “We’ll have to jump through some legal hoops yes, but it’ll be worth it to see you have a safe place.”

Panchito bounced on his heels, “Not saying this orphanage isn’t safe and very nice.” 

Ms. Berganza waved her hand, “I know what you mean.”

“Well?” Panchito goaded. “What do you say?” José clasped his hands together over his chest, like those praying women in old movies. Panchito was behind him with his hands on his shoulders.

Time didn’t seem to be working. It was somewhat surreal all in all, there were so many changes that were happening so fast, it was like he was stuck on a looping roller coaster. He would be lying to say he wasn’t worried.

So many bad things could happen, one of them could die or leave like his birth parents, they could get sick of him and make him live on the streets again, etc etc. Something about the whole situation made him feel a little uneasy. He wasn’t sure if he could really accept parental figures at the moment.

Then again, they weren’t really asking to be his parents. They were just trying to make sure he was safe and looked after until he made his own decision. The dream version of his mom piped up in the back of his head. ‘It’s better to take a leap of faith and try and figure it out, than to sit still and do nothing.’

So he closed the manila folder and took a deep breath, he looked the rooster and the parrot in the eyes and smiled, “Alright. I’m in.”


End file.
